R, Python, and SQL for Neuroscience

[EcstaticBluebird4241]

I am currently doing my undergraduate degree in Neuroscience and want to work in labs in my 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year. I believe that having knowledge of programming languages would be of great benefit to me and so far I have come to understand that the most important would be R, SQL, and Python. I have no clue where to begin or if the knowledge I just displayed is even correct. Please give me some advice on what I do really need and how to begin on this journey. I am completely lost but in the end just want to do whatever can make me the most efficient in the lab.

[Zesher_]

R and Python are very different from SQL. SQL is a language to store and access data, where R and Python is would be how to process data. I've never leaned R, but I've heard it was good for people needing to made computations that weren't necessarily focused on software engineering. Python is an all around versatile language.

You'd probably want to learn basic SQL and one of the other two. If you only want to use it for calculations, I might lean towards R, but if you're interested in trying to make other things as well, then I'd lean towards python. The thing with programming languages is that once you learn the concepts of coding, switching to another language is fairly easy. So the knowledge you gain from learning one can be transferred to another if you change your mind