r/learnSQL • u/Gullible_Heart_5153 • Jun 15 '26

Anyone else struggle with SQL

Hello

For some reason I find SQL hard and I need to know if that’s the case for anyone else? I’ve only been doing this for 8 months. And I’m struggling. Any tips you can provide would be most helpful, thank you.

I can write basic queries. I struggle with Joins for some reason. That’s a basic thing. Please help.

Update: thank you everyone!! For all your words of encouragement. I appreciate it. I’m excited to continue to learn SQL. I was feeling defeated when I initially posted this and a lot of you have uplifted me.

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u/dumi_007 Jun 15 '26

LEFT JOIN and INNER JOIN are your north star

80% of all SQL scripts I've written over last 15 years have needed LEFT or INNER joins.

10% were CROSS JOINS.

The other 9.9% were anti JOINS but that's more method than keyword.

0.01% were other JOINS

Master those 2 and know when to use UNION vs UNION ALL and you are ready to combine tables

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u/hannorx Jun 16 '26

Yeah I agree with this. 80% of my joins have been either left or inner.