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Coding in SQL, Python, VBA, JQuery and OfficeScript using AI tools Part two of an eight-part series of blogs
One of the immediate and obvious ways to use AI tools is to boost your productivity as a programmer. This blog shows how you can use ChatGPT 4 and Google's Bard to write programs in SQL, Python, VBA, JQuery and Office Script (probably the 5 languages Wise Owl use most). Comparing the coding skills of two different AI tools SQL programming using AI tools (this blog) Getting help with Python code using AI tools VBA programming using AI tools Getting AI help with C# programming Writing programs in Office Scripts using AI Writing JQuery or JavaScript code using AI tools Conclusion: which AI tools (if any) should you use for which languages?

Coding in SQL, Python, VBA, JQuery and OfficeScript using AI tools

Part two of an eight-part series of blogs

One of the immediate and obvious ways to use AI tools is to boost your productivity as a programmer. This blog shows how you can use ChatGPT 4 and Google's Bard to write programs in SQL, Python, VBA, JQuery and Office Script (probably the 5 languages Wise Owl use most).

Posted by Andy Brown on 07 June 2023

In this blog

SQL using ChatGPT 4 (time taken 34 seconds)
SQL using Bard (time taken: 6 seconds)

How can ChatGPT or Bard help you write SQL?

As a quick reminder, here's what I want my AI tool to help me to do:

"Write an SQL program for SQL Server to show the most-read books, joining a table of authors and a table of books together"

I deliberately haven't said how the tables are joined together, nor what they (or their columns) are called; you have to leave something to your AI tool's imagination!

SQL using ChatGPT 4 (time taken 34 seconds)

What I like about this answer is that it states the assumptions used, and then explains afterwards how the query was written:

ChatGPT hasn't used any table aliases, but otherwise this is well formatted and constructed.

However, the big problem with this query is that it almost certainly doesn't answer my original question. I want to group by each author and show the number of books each author has written using the SQL COUNT function - a distinction which has passed ChatGPT by.

SQL using Bard (time taken: 6 seconds)

Bard took less than a fifth of the time to produce this answer:

Initially I thought this query was better than ChatGPT's version - but then I looked more closely.

There's a lot more to say about this response, because it contains a lot more detail. Here are the good things:

Good point	Details
Aliases	I like the way that Bard has given aliases to the tables, even though they aren't radically different from the original names!
Formatting	The SQL is well-indented and easy to read
Sample output	Giving sample output from the query is a great idea

However, this query would be less useful than the ChatGPT one, and more confusing if you didn't understand SQL. There are 3 main problems:

Problem	Notes
Table structure	While ChatGPT doesn't complicate the question enough, Bard overcomplicates it by introducing 3 tables. I've tried my hardest to make sense of these but can't. If you know SQL well this won't be useful to you, and if you don't the joins used will just confuse you.
Explanation	The notes at the bottom are a great idea, but I don't think they are accurate: SQL doesn't use one join at a time to create a new table (or even if it does this internally, it's still not a useful way to describe what's going on).
Syntax	Bard has slipped in LIMIT 10 at the end which may be standard SQL but isn't used by the dialect of SQL used by SQL Server (T-SQL), for which you would use SELECT TOP 10 instead.

Despite it taking longer to produce an answer, I prefer ChatGPT's solution. If two human programmers gave me these answers I would feel that the first person knew SQL and knew what they were talking about, but the second one was just winging it!

Parts of this blog
Comparing the coding skills of two different AI tools SQL programming using AI tools (this blog) Getting help with Python code using AI tools VBA programming using AI tools Getting AI help with C# programming Writing programs in Office Scripts using AI Writing JQuery or JavaScript code using AI tools Conclusion: which AI tools (if any) should you use for which languages?

Some other pages relevant to the above blogs include:

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How can ChatGPT or Bard help you write SQL?

SQL using ChatGPT 4 (time taken 34 seconds)

SQL using Bard (time taken: 6 seconds)

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