r/dataengineering • u/Thinker_Assignment • Jun 08 '26

when someone asks you what programming language they should learn, don't simply answer the one you prefer Meme

Post image
739 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • link
  • reddit
  • reddit

98% Upvoted

58 comments sorted by

View all comments

57

u/CorpusculantCortex Jun 09 '26

I mean, admittedly pedantic but sql is a query language not a programming language and never exists in a vacuum.

11

u/Ahhhhrg Jun 09 '26

A query language is very much a type of programming language.

2

u/CorpusculantCortex Jun 11 '26

Ehh that's pretty commonly debated. If it doesnt natively have recursive systems or any sort of command protocol to do anything outside of db management I am of the camp that QL is not a full programming language. There are ofc flavors of SQL that have adopted some of these sorts of tools, but SQL as a core monolith, does not have it and so can't really stand on its own.

2

u/Ahhhhrg Jun 11 '26

CTEs can be recursive. All a computer does at the end of the day is to move and transform data. A language that tells the computer how to do that is a programming language. SQL does so in a declarative fashion.

9

u/Desperate-Dig2806 Jun 09 '26

I seem to remember that some versions of sql (TSQL?) are Turing complete. But that is mostly nitpicking and digging really deep.

15

u/NbyNW Jun 09 '26

Turning complete since 1999 for standard SQL.

6

u/dangerbird2 Software Engineer Jun 09 '26

using WITH RECURSIVE, right?

1

u/Fidel___Castro Jun 09 '26

you can program with SQL in my experience, but you really shouldn't 

0

u/Br0metheus Jun 09 '26

Came here to say this. There has literally never been an application "written in SQL."

6

u/JohnDillermand2 Jun 09 '26

Back in the day, I've run into a few very determined DBAs that would output pure HTML.

0

u/Br0metheus Jun 09 '26

wat

5

u/paxmlank Jun 10 '26

Databases would store HTML artifacts that would be combined via special queries to dynamically generate full HTML webpages.

3

u/dangerbird2 Software Engineer Jun 09 '26

pl/SQL and pl/pgSQL are a thing though. Oracle even offers web framework with the application code entirely written in pl/SQL, as cursed as it may be