Developers often dispute the merits of SQL as a legitimate programming language, but this misses the point. SQL is a powerful 4GL for accessing data.

Maybe it's not the sexiest programming language, but SQL continues to be relevant. In fact, TIOBE Software, which publishes a TIOBE Programming Community Index gauging the popularity of programming ...

In 2023, the IEEE noted that SQL was the most popular language for developers to know when it came to getting a job, due to how it could be combined with other programming languages.

SQL had a somewhat unusual journey in the TIOBE Index. In 2004, due to debates about whether SQL counted as a programming language at all, Jansen removed it from the index.

Looking at SQL today, it might seem to be clunky, and it is easy to make mistakes and lose valuable data if you do not know the language well and don’t check for mistakes.