I'm not necessarily sure I'd agree that imperative would be easier to learn, unless you're digging deep into query plans and extreme optimization in SQL.
SQL has a relatively readable English-like syntax which is likely more familiar to beginners, and doesn't have to deal with Object Oriented Programming. Plus, I find declarative a lot more intuitive, especially for beginners, since you focus on what you want the computer to achieve, without as much care about how the computer does so.
Well my impression here is based on meeting a ton of people who have trouble learning SQL directly - or learn a little SQL and then give up because they "don't get it", vs. lots of folks who know one imperative language and then picked up SQL very easily.
Basically... there are a lot of people who are almost there in terms of being able to be good at SQL or generalize into making more through data analysis that requires dipping into imperative programming. It's like they hit a wall at mediocre SQL skills. I think this draws from not having a solid basis on which to build out their skills, instead just getting enough of what is basically a DSL for relational querying to be dangerous but not knowing where else to go from there. These folks find that situation discouraging and frustrating and I always put them down the Python or JavaScript path and it tends to work.
I'm not necessarily sure I'd agree that imperative would be easier to learn, unless you're digging deep into query plans and extreme optimization in SQL.
SQL has a relatively readable English-like syntax which is likely more familiar to beginners, and doesn't have to deal with Object Oriented Programming. Plus, I find declarative a lot more intuitive, especially for beginners, since you focus on what you want the computer to achieve, without as much care about how the computer does so.
Well my impression here is based on meeting a ton of people who have trouble learning SQL directly - or learn a little SQL and then give up because they "don't get it", vs. lots of folks who know one imperative language and then picked up SQL very easily.
Basically... there are a lot of people who are almost there in terms of being able to be good at SQL or generalize into making more through data analysis that requires dipping into imperative programming. It's like they hit a wall at mediocre SQL skills. I think this draws from not having a solid basis on which to build out their skills, instead just getting enough of what is basically a DSL for relational querying to be dangerous but not knowing where else to go from there. These folks find that situation discouraging and frustrating and I always put them down the Python or JavaScript path and it tends to work.