Database administrators always find ways to make large chunks of data more accessible to their users. Optimization is the key and everyone believes what they know is the best programming language. If you’re looking to build a powerful data management system, you want to learn more than one.
Not all programmers fancy themselves as masters of multiple languages. Pros don’t have to master too many languages, but it’s vital to know what you would need to build the most efficient database for your needs. Here are 6 programming languages to learn when you’re building a data management system.
Structured Query Language (SQL)
Structured Query Language or SQL is a must for every administrator planning to be in the industry for a long time. SQL is one of the most famous, if not the most famous, database programming language for developers due to its many advantages. It offers scalability and robustness that is hard to find anywhere else.
SQL is almost the de-facto programming language for many businesses worldwide. You can use it for small businesses and big organizations without a loss in performance. Its queries and statements produce many ways to access and extract data. However, the language is not without its flaws.
Not all SQL applications are compatible, even if several vendors adopt some type of SQL-based software. This creates confusion among would-be database developers. Portability is also an issue, with concepts in SQL that have a very high learning curve.
SQL also has several variants available, known as relational database management systems. As your needs change, you would want to learn more about these RDBM systems. There are open-source variants like SQLite, MySQL, and PostgreSQL to commercial ones like Oracle and MS SQL.
Python
If SQL is one of the most famous database programming languages, Python is its biggest rival. Both are the most useful languages due to their scalability and they work as a solid combo in a database management system (DBMS).
Python is a general-purpose language, which means you can find a variety of uses cases for it. From data management to system integration, it is great for high-level data manipulation that SQL is not known for. Statistical analysis, time-series data, and even regressions work better if done with Python.
Here’s a pro tip: if you have to limit the languages that you need to learn, stay with SQL and Python. Python has an expansive library that offers better efficiency in tasks that SQL can’t handle. The syntax is simple too, which allows for a gentler learning curve.
Python, combined with SQL, offers not only data analysis but also display and storage functionality. It also helps that it has one of the best support communities available on the internet.
PHP
PHP is one of the most expansively used server-side scripting languages co-opted by many web developers. It is useful for developing complex websites with a lot of interactivity. For databases, it is also among the preferred programming languages preferred for its data write, data storage, and data retrieval capabilities.
PHP has quite the shallower learning curve compared to others like SQL, Python, and many others. You can also test small scripts in PHP that will allow easier client-server communication. This will allow you to learn crucial web concepts, which should be invaluable once you start building your data management system.
One of the advantages of PHP is its open-source and cross-platform nature. It can run on both Unix-based and Windows NT systems, as well as using it as either a binary or an Apache module. The entirety of WordPress uses PHP as its base code, so you can be sure that integration for it will be tight.
Practical Extraction and Report Language (PERL)
Practical Extraction and Report Language, widely known as PERL, is another multi-purpose language that has a variety of use cases. Developed by Larry Wall, much of its value comes from its use as an interpreter language. It can do many jobs, with text-processing being one of its strongest suits.
For data management systems, PERL is one of the most popular server-side scripting languages. For those who are planning to use PERL, the common process is to utilize a database interface or DBI. It works well with SQL, which makes it easy to learn as a secondary programming language to support what you already know.
In a single language, PERL is a great language that combines the best features of several programming languages. It works as a combination of C, Sh, Awk, and Sed, with expression syntaxes similar to C. If you’re looking to build a data management system that can parse faster than most, PERL should be a great content.
R Programming
R is a programming language you rarely hear from most devs, and for a reason. R programming is a specialized language whose strengths rely on its fantastic statistical computing. Much of the value of R comes from data mining, machine learning, and statistical analysis on large datasets.
Data management systems vary in use, depending in the industry that wants to utilize them. Its data analytics capabilities are second-to-none, as well as its visualization and reporting. R programming’s ability to provide performance and computational requirements for mathematical equations make it perfect for scientific databases.
The primary issue that many R programmers complain about is its steep learning curve. Even more than SQL, R and its code syntax is not intuitive at all. The language itself has a tendency to not be user-friendly and does not work well for those who need its capabilities.
C# Programming
C# is one of the most famous programming suites on the internet. The C-suite is flexible and efficient, useful not only for databases but also for other types of developmental uses. It runs well in almost every system hardware and provides cross-platform support. For DBMS, it also works well as a relational database.
C# works well in maximizing system resources as well as server hosting. It’s good at efficiently creating high-performance native apps due to its generally intricate nature. It pairs well with SQL too, so if you’re planning to use it as a second programming language, it should be easier than ever.
What makes C# great too is its ease of use. Almost every administrator trying to build data management systems will likely know how to use it. It pairs nicely with Oracle, MS SQL Server, and more, with one of the biggest support communities on the internet as well.
About The Author:
Chatty is a freelance writer from Manila. She finds joy in inspiring and educating others through writing. That’s why aside from her job as a language evaluator for local and international students, she spends her leisure time writing about various topics such as lifestyle, technology, and business.
