SQL can be a pain. it’s a declarative language, which can be cumbersome to coders used to the procedural world of programming in the large. And unlike eLisp or Perl, it tends to lack builtin, contextual documentation. The hapless application builder is left with two options: doggedly deny that actually learning SQL has any real benefit and so guess at different ways to solve a problem until it works, or give in, waste a lot of time memorizing its syntax and semantics.

[editor’s note: Originally, this was going to be the beginning of a tutorial on how to make SQL work for you. But given time to reflect on that idea, I’ve decided not to write that tutorial, because to be truthful, I’ve never really become comfortable with SQL. I can’t seem to shake the idea that it’s a complete mess. So, if you’re forced to use SQL, I’m sorry.]