Does ChatGPT Know SQL?

Does ChatGPT Know SQL?

The short answer is “Yes, but not entirely”. While ChatGPT may not be proficient in all aspects of SQL (actually, a lot of aspects of SQL), it is able to generate executable code and perform certain tasks. However, I found it unreliable when I asked about various database topics such as normalization forms and implicit conversion, but it was able to properly explain a recursive statement that created a Mandelbrot set and a recursive query that solved Sudoku without informing it of the SQL’s purpose. I’m sure AI will grow exponentially here in the next few months and years, so I won’t lament on everything that it wasn’t able to get correct.

However, one example that ChatGPT was able to do correctly was when I asked it to convert a string input into a separated list. One notable example of ChatGPT’s usefulness was its ability to quickly generate code to convert the string input “%34.45%aa6%4%xyz%1.23%” into a separated list of integers and real numbers: “34.45, 6, 4, 1.23”.

While this task may have taken a human developer longer to complete, ChatGPT was able to solve it quickly and efficiently. ChatGPT’s knowledge of SQL is useful for certain tasks, but it is important to keep its limitations in mind.

Here is the code that it generated.

--CREATE FUNCTION extract_numbers(@input VARCHAR(MAX))
--RETURNS VARCHAR(MAX)
--AS
BEGIN
    DECLARE @output VARCHAR(MAX) = '';
    DECLARE @input VARCHAR(MAX) = '%34.45%aa6%4%xyz%1.23%';
    DECLARE @char CHAR(1);
    DECLARE @temp VARCHAR(MAX) = '';
    DECLARE @i INT = 1;

    WHILE @i <= LEN(@input)
    BEGIN
        SET @char = SUBSTRING(@input, @i, 1);
        IF (@char BETWEEN '0' AND '9') OR (@char = '.')
        BEGIN
            SET @temp = @temp + @char;
        END
        ELSE
        BEGIN
            IF LEN(@temp) > 0
            BEGIN
                IF LEN(@output) > 0
                BEGIN
                    SET @output = @output + ', ';
                END
                SET @output = @output + @temp;
                SET @temp = '';
            END
        END
        SET @i = @i + 1;
    END

    IF LEN(@temp) > 0
    BEGIN
        IF LEN(@output) > 0
        BEGIN
            SET @output = @output + ',';
        END
        SET @output = @output + @temp;
    END

    SELECT @output;
END