Which database language and database management system should an economics student learn? (Provided that one has to be learned) I will have to pick essentially any DBS, learn how to use it and use it during a period of 2-3 month. I do not possess any noteworthy background knowledge, so I will be starting from scratch independent of my choice.
Since I am hoping to become an academic economist, I was wondering whether a particular language or specific DBS is particularly widely used in economic research or is otherwise especially useful for economic research.
Since I could not find any articles/statistics on this topic otherwise, I thought I would ask here.
First, some clarity. The standard language used for interfacing with a DBMS is SQL. However, its syntax and functions slightly vary according to the DBMS system you are interfacing with.
The most popular ones are MySQL and PostgreSQL. The choice between them is mostly indifferent. In my personal experience, I found that building a MySQL database from scratch is slightly easier, even if PostgreSQL is more flexible.
If you are a complete beginner, first I suggest you to start by learning SQL syntax and best practices, and if you need to build your own database by choosing between one of these two.