SQL or Structured Query Language is a critical tool for data professionals. It is undoubtedly the most important language for getting a job in the field of data analysis or data sciences.

Millions of data points are being generated every minute and raw data does not have any story to tell. After all this data gets stored in databases and professionals use SQL to extract this data for further analysis.

SQL is the most common language for extracting and organising data that is stored in a relational database.

A database is a table that consists of rows and columns. SQL is the language of databases.

It facilitates retrieving specific information from databases that are further used for analysis.

SQL can be used to:

• Execute queries against a database

• Retrieve data from a database

• Insert records into a database

• Update records in a database

• Delete records from a database

• Create new databases, or new tables in a database

• Create stored procedures & views in a database

• Set permissions on tables, procedures, and views

• Backup and restore data

• Join data from multiple tables

Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system developed by Microsoft. As a database server, it is a software product with the primary function of storing and retrieving data as requested by other

software applications—which may run either on the same computer or on another computer across a network.

PostgreSQL, also known as Postgres, is a free and open-source relational database management system emphasizing extensibility and SQL compliance.