Jill Thornhill

Jill is a freelance IT consultant and writer currently living in Zimbabwe. She has taught relational databases and programming in the UK and various African countries and has watched SQL mature from an exciting new concept to an industry standard. She’s passionate about adventure sports, including skydiving and paragliding, but now mostly settles for adopting stray cats and being besotted with her grandchildren.

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17 Jan 2023

Jill Thornhill

Is SQL Hard to Learn?

If you have no IT skills, how hard is it to learn SQL? Will it be too technical for you? Is it worth the effort? And where would you start? In this article I will answer those questions. As an IT consultant and trainer, I've often advised people to learn SQL. And, almost as often the reply has been, "Is it hard to learn SQL? Do I need technical or IT skills to learn it?

6 Dec 2022

Jill Thornhill

The Future of SQL

Is it worthwhile to learn SQL? Or will a language that’s over 40 years old soon be outdated? Have relational databases been eclipsed by the advent of other database solutions like NoSQL? In this article, we answer these questions. Do you need to upgrade your IT skills? What should you learn first? The choice is daunting. If you're looking to the future, you obviously want to invest your time in something that's still widely used and will continue to be in the years to come.