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Comment by adamlett | Hacker News Reader

Most common SQL statements read like somewhat stilted english. Many non-programmers find this particularly accessible.

The problem is not reading SQL, but writing it.

It's a lot like Excel. You can do some really complex confusing stuff in Excel […] Basic knowledge of Excel, like SQL, gives the user new ways to leverage computers when creating their own solutions to their own problems.

I can’t speak to your experiences, but I’ve never in my life encountered someone who was not a professional programmer ever even contemplating using SQL for anything let alone creating their own solutions to their own problems. I think it’s safe to assume that the overwhelming majority of people who use SQL, are programmers who most certainly cannot get by with just basic knowledge.

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Librarians and secretaries are two examples of "non-programmer" careers where functional knowledge of SQL is pretty common. Less-so these days with secretaries, but moreso for librarians. Not to mention tons of researchers across countless disciplines have SQL in their toolboxes. I've even met government bureaucrats with professional backgrounds in regional banking that know SQL. Previous programming experience? Using HP-12c calculators...

>I think it’s safe to assume that the overwhelming majority of people who use SQL, are programmers who most certainly cannot get by with just basic knowledge.

Most demonstrably do though, so there's that. If you cast a wide net when polling programmers, I think you'd find that mode level of knowledge was relatively low. You don't need to be a SQL rockstar ninja dude to do what most professional programmers are doing with SQL most of the time. Obviously advanced knowledge is good for any professional programmer to have, but the fact is there are a TON of people out there who only know the basics, and that works for them.

"I’ve never in my life encountered someone who was not a professional programmer ever even contemplating using SQL for anything"

I have. That's only an anecdotal observation, but it seems to me that the existence of Visual Basic and the popularity over the years, combined with the utter disdain for it by "real programmers" is evidence that, more generally, there are a huge number of kinda, sorta, programmers who are outside the IT culture.

In the business world (e-commerce in my case) I know plenty of business analysts who write SQL as their only programming experience. That’s part of what I like about SQL. It bridges the gap.

Our support guys are mostly hired from our customer base. They have great domain knowledge, but do not have any formal tech training.

After some time, most can handle enough SQL to help customers with basic issues that cannot be handled in the application. Some have become quite good at it, and can do quite non-trivial stuff. None of these folks write any code beyond SQL.

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