Developers often dispute the merits of SQL as a legitimate programming language, but this misses the point. SQL is a powerful 4GL for accessing data.

SQL had a somewhat unusual journey in the TIOBE Index. In 2004, due to debates about whether SQL counted as a programming language at all, Jansen removed it from the index.

Maybe it's not the sexiest programming language, but SQL continues to be important--at least according to one measurement.

Without relational databases, SQL could occupy a role similar to COBOL or FORTRAN—programming languages that are still relied on every day in legacy systems but are not at the heart of pushing ...

SQL has dominated data querying for decades. Newer query languages offer more elegance, simplicity, and flexibility for modern use cases.

While SQL was a serious top 10 player when the index began in 2001, it was taken from the list after someone noted in 2004 that SQL was not a programming language.

It found that Python, Java, SQL and JavaScript appeared the most frequently in developer job ads, each appearing in more than 50,000 listings on Indeed. All four saw a significant jump in demand ...

We aggregated data from nine rankings to produce the ZDNET Index of Programming Language Popularity. Here's which languages came out on top and what to make of this information.