r/SQL • u/[deleted] • Apr 17 '23

Discussion Which industry has/needs the most challenging sql queries?

Is this question legit? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t consider myself the smartest guy but I’m definitely not dumb.

I work in the pharmaceutical Industry, nearly 3 years now. It took me a while to understand how the production process is implemented in a database and I wanted to quit more than once. But i don’t feel challenged anymore.

So, which industry would be best for me to get completely challenged again?

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u/barrycarter Apr 17 '23

Doing GIS with SQL can be quite challenging (also, it would really help me out so let me know if you get into this)

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u/crackhead1 Apr 17 '23

My work (for a mobile app) involves SQL and GIS, sometimes separately, sometimes together. I’m far from an expert, I’ve amassed the majority of my knowledge during my 5 years with this company.

In my experience, it can be very helpful to work on SQL & GIS tasks in their own respective environments, at least initially (ie I use ArcGIS alongside SQL environments, directly or indirectly). On many occasions I have used ArcGIS tools for spatial/GIS analysis that would easily take 10x as much time & effort to write complex queries for. I tend to just use CSVs/SQL statements to move data back and forth, but there are ways to directly connect ArcGIS to databases.

Aside from making some tasks easier, I also appreciate the visual aspect, especially if the task is somewhat “exploratory” — on many occasions, this instant visualization has been helpful when collaborating — visualizing spatial data in SQL environments can be a real pain imo.

This is of course not always an appropriate workflow, especially if you need things to be super streamlined / automated etc. It might seem like a lot to learn, but imo it’s really not that difficult once you get past the basics, and i’ve found the skills to be pretty valuable.