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Discussion on: Do You Remember Your First Coding Experience?

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helenanders26 profile image
Helen Anderson

Not sure if it counts but ... mine was about three years ago at the grand old age of 31 when I stumbled into a job that had me using SAS for the first time ever. I was late to the game, very, very late to the game. Then I got hooked on SQL.

I tried JavaScript on a three month part time general assembly course two years ago thinking I was going to be a web dev ... and then went straight back to SQL.

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awwsmm profile image
Andrew (he/him)

That counts! If I had to choose between the two, I would probably also choose SQL over JavaScript. Domain-specific languages like SAS take a lot of heat from "real" programmers, but even things like making a complicated Excel macro count as programming, in my opinion. It's the same thought process, just funneled through a different medium.

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helenanders26 profile image
Helen Anderson

That's a good way to look at it.

Building VLOOKUPs and Pivot Tables and IF statements in Excel is such a good 'launching off' point for junior data analysts. Teaching SQL concepts is a lot quicker with a bit of Excel background.

I am glad I said goodbye to SAS, it was used to move data around and not do any statistical analysis so was overkill for what was needed.