Learning web design and development, many times you focus on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. You may even focus on the latest trend in design. I am here to tell you that SQL (structured query language) is the second most important language you need to learn in web development. The Internet is filled with data and data is stored in databases. To access these databases and pull the data you want you must know SQL.
Today websites are built with a database to store content; these sites are called Content Management Systems. Without knowing SQL you can’t display the content on the website. Even if the framework you are using makes it easy so you don’t have to write SQL statements you need to understand what is happening so that when data is being displayed that is not wanted or not correctly output you can solve the problem. Many times incorrect data displayed is because of an incorrect SQL statement or incorrect parameters to a function that builds a SQL statement for you. Knowing SQL you will be able to correct these issues and display the content you intend to share.
The next question you might have is what SQL database I should use. The answer is completely up to you. I have chosen to use MySQL because it’s one of the most popular databases and is open source. Once I learned the SQL language I could use it with other databases with very minor changes to the syntax.
The final thing I will say is get started! Go learn SQL if you want to become a web developer. Don’t wait; don’t put it off till tomorrow. For those that want to know my opinion on the top languages to study, here they are:
