this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2023
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[–] SorteKanin@feddit.dk 25 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Same, I prefer lower case. Every other language has keywords in lower case, why do you need to shout when writing sql?

[–] hikaru755@feddit.de 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

I understand it as an attempt to get very basic, manual syntax highlighting. If all you have is white text on black background, then I do see the value of making keywords easy to spot by putting them in all caps. And this probably made sense back when SQL was first developed, but it's 2023, any dev / data scientist not using a tool that gives you syntax highlighting seriously needs to get with the times

[–] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Partially, yes. I personally use an IDE with excellent syntax highlighting and those have been around for at least two decades. You are, however, often transplanting your SQL between a variety of environments and in some of those syntax highlighting is unavailable (for me at least) - the all caps does help in those rare situations.

More importantly though it helps clearly differentiate between those control keywords (which are universal) and data labels (which are specific to your business domain). If I'm consulting on a complex system that I only partially understand it's extremely helpful to be able to quickly identify data labels that I'm unfamiliar with to research.

[–] Bonehead@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

it's 2023, any dev / data scientist not using a tool that gives you syntax highlighting seriously needs to get with the times

You say that as if AS400 systems with only console access don't exist anymore.

[–] hikaru755@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well then use all-caps keywords whenever working on those systems, I don't care. But an edge case like that shouldn't dictate the default for everyone else who doesn't have to work on that, that's all I'm saying.

[–] Bonehead@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

There are several cases where you'll be limited to console only, or log files, or many many other situations. Good coding practices just makes life easier all around.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Also some people are color blind.

Also you might need to ssh in somewhere and vi some code or tail a log file where you don’t have color support.

[–] hikaru755@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

My ide isn't limited to color when it comes to highlighting, so being color blind generally shouldn't be a problem. Set keywords to underlined, bold, italic, whatever works for you.

Your other examples I can see, but at least at my work those are rare edge cases, and I'd rather optimize for the brunt of the work than for those. Of course at other places those might be much more of a concern.

[–] Simulation6@sopuli.xyz 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just some key words in uppercase (FROM, JOIN,WHERE,etc) so they pop out

[–] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

Yea - you want the structure in a recognizable form so that you can quickly confirm code patterns for comprehension.

[–] neo@lemmy.comfysnug.space 10 points 1 year ago

THE DATABASE CAN'T HEAR ME IF I DON'T SCREAM

[–] Hupf@feddit.de 1 points 11 months ago

What about Intercal?