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SQL and relational database management systems or RDBMS were invented simultaneously by Edgar F. Codd in the early 1970s. The simple fact that both arrived early in the life of computing, and that for 90% of the time they just work, means databases have become a 'solved problem' you no longer need to think about.
It's like how MailChimp has become synonymous with sending email newsletters. If you want to work with data you use RDBMS and SQL. In fact, there usually needs to be a good reason not to use them. Just like there needs to be a good reason not to use MailChimp for sending emails, or Stripe for taking card payments.
But people do use other other email automation software and payment solutions, just like people use NoSQL databases. Yet even with other database technology available, albeit less mature technology, SQL still reigns and reigns well.
So, finally, here are 8 reasons we still use SQL 43 years after it was first cooked up.
It's clickbait, I tell ya!
(Score: 4, Informative) by Grishnakh on Thursday May 04 2017, @04:16PM (10 children)
They use all caps
I see this all the time though, in blogs about SQL, in the actual documentation, etc. I can see why so many people do it: it's because so many other people do it, so they think it's the standard.
It also does help separate the SQL keywords from variable names, table names, etc. I guess if you were writing an actual blog (rather than a StackOverflow response) you could use different colors to highlight the SQL keywords instead, and some text editors probably do this too, but most venues don't support this. Also, if you're writing queries that are embedded in another language (like C++), the auto-highlighting thing probably isn't going to work.
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Thursday May 04 2017, @04:38PM (7 children)
"That's the way we've always done it" is one of the most dangerous things ever uttered. I think the whole upper case thing came from syntax diagrams in manuals that showed keywords in all caps, and people thought you had to. I don 't care about the reason though, it makes it quite unreadable. Keywords are one of the things you care *least* about. Proper names, and lower/camelCase make SQL readable. It's time to stop making excuses.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Thursday May 04 2017, @04:48PM (3 children)
You can't expect people to do things differently just because *you* think they should be different, when the actual manuals and documentation show something different.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Nerdfest on Thursday May 04 2017, @05:41PM
Duh ... of course I can.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday May 04 2017, @06:16PM (1 child)
What that boils down to in my experience is that doing things a different way is usually doing things a better way, but implementing that new way costs monies in the short-term and coincidentally managers will bend over backwards to avoid spending money and pad their short-term profits.
What results is band-aid fix on top of band-aid fix, and they have to be dragged into modernization kicking and screaming -- and usually when it's too late, like when something irreplaceable breaks or there's a massive data loss that causes operations to grind to a screeching halt.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday May 04 2017, @08:12PM
Using upper-case SQL keywords isn't going to make anything break; it's purely cosmetic. It's even less consequential than the old tabs-vs-spaces argument, or camelCase vs. under_score, etc. And this has nothing to do with managers anyway, this is something purely down to developers and their habits. My argument is just that it's basically monkey-see-monkey-do; people see it done this way *so much* that they just go along with it, because they're probably not writing that much SQL anyway (just some queries that are embedded into other code), and they really don't care that much, and assume that it's done that way for some valid reason and they're not going to bother questioning it because they know that while technically any modern SQL database isn't case-sensitive with those keywords, that it's usually better to just go with the flow, just like they do with any multi-person programming project where you have to follow the common coding style guidelines instead of just doing your own thing.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Thexalon on Thursday May 04 2017, @05:27PM (2 children)
On the contrary, keywords are what I care about the most! I for one want to be able to tell immediately whether what I'm looking at starts with the word "delete", for instance, because that matters more than exactly what table(s) I'm going to be looking at. What you seem to be describing is the equivalent of a syntax highlighter that highlights everything that's not syntax, which makes not much sense.
ALLCAPS keywords in SQL is part of every single style guide I've read. You see it everywhere because the other developers are following a standard that has tested by time and thousands of people and found to work reasonably well. Trying to argue "I'm right and everybody else is wrong" is not likely to be a winner though.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Thursday May 04 2017, @05:44PM
You don't have to agree with me. I can't force you to be right.
More seriously, the keywords stand out better using indentation, without being distracting, I think.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @08:08AM
Meanwhile, everyone else knows that allcaps is mostly unreadable. Heck, lawyers use it for the important clauses they really don't want you to read because if you do you would never sign anything.
(Score: 3, Informative) by digitalaudiorock on Thursday May 04 2017, @07:12PM (1 child)
It also makes the SQL stand out when it's embedded in other code. I've frankly always liked that about using upper case. I'm apparently in a minority based on what I read here.
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Friday May 05 2017, @12:50AM
Yes, it does stand out ... but you can't read or maintain it easily.