Should You Learn SQL Before or After a Programming Language

People often assume SQL should come after learning a full programming language, but that is not always the right order depending on what you are trying to build. This article looks at the case for learning SQL early, especially if you are interested in backend or data focused roles, since understanding how data is stored and queried changes how you think about writing application code later. We go over the basic building blocks of SQL, like selecting, filtering and joining data, using simple examples that do not require any other programming knowledge. There is also a short comparison of when it makes more sense to prioritize a general purpose language first instead, depending on your specific goals.