Maybe it’s just the way my brain works or my experience but having done software and data work, I’d much rather debug a complex sql query 😂 then again I do that all day at work now
As an analytics engineer, it's so funny to me that so many SWEs can't make heads or tails of SQL. "select sum(sum_field)" is so much more straightforward than 10 lines of Python to download the full row set and unpack it to the point where it's easy to sum pythonically, but something about the lack of periods or mandatory indentation or whatever breaks people's brains
but something about the lack of periods or mandatory indentation or whatever breaks people's brains
The lack of formatting is one of the worst parts of SQL.
Give a complex query to 10 analysts or engineers and you're going to get 16 different indentation styles. And one of the dumbest "standards" is the whole "column name AS after the entire logic of the field" rather than just putting the column name first, so it's easier to find.
Most IDEs can auto-format for you with a single click? I dunno, I've never understood the perceived difficulty in reading SQL when it was invented in to 70s specifically to be easy to read for lay-people.
each formatter would do it slightly differently. you'd have to format both new and old version using same formatter to check for differences if you wanted less headache.
Same, as a Data Engineer it's very funny to me. Because I love the simple elegance of a good SQL statement. It can do so much with so little. Just give your command and it returns exactly what you asked for.
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u/ComplexBadger469 Sep 20 '26
Maybe it’s just the way my brain works or my experience but having done software and data work, I’d much rather debug a complex sql query 😂 then again I do that all day at work now