Why SQL... for the Money?

Our Db2 for i team in IBM Technology Services has touted the advantages of using SQL for many years at conferences and user-group meetings. Recently, the following headline in my newsfeed caught my attention with an SQL advantage that has not been directly touted in the past: Money

Python is the most-loved language, but SQL helps make More Money

While the Python part of this headline is not as applicable to IBM i developers, the SQL portion is definitely applicable to programmers in the IBM i world. 

Our team has pointed out for years that one reason to use SQL is that it is the de facto industry standard. Indirectly, this reason does have some monetary benefits. The linked article states that SQL is a leading desirable skill. Thus, using SQL with Db2 for i improves your marketability in the IT world if you ever chose to leave the greatest platform and database in the world. You also don’t necessarily need to leave your current position to cash in on your SQL skills. Developers that add new skills to their toolset make themselves more valuable to their company which in turn makes it easier for a company to reward that added value with a salary increase.

SQL also provides a monetary benefit to your company because it helps IT deliver on business requirements faster. Data-centric programming with SQL enables developers to focus their efforts on delivering business logic and relieves them from the responsibilities of implementing relational data processing. The result is a reduction in the amount of code that developers have to write and maintain as they rely more on the Db2 engine to take care of the implementation details. The SQL Rollup and Sequence features are good examples of this ability to deliver more with less code. The Rollup support allows a report to return multiple levels of aggregation (Country and Country & Region) with a single SQL statement. Similarly, a Sequence object enables you to hand over ID or key generation logic over to Db2 for i.

While there are other advantages to using SQL, hopefully the monetary advantages for you and your company are apparent. Let me know if your company needs help reaping this benefit of SQL – the Db2 for i team in Technology Services is here to help.