realistically how hard is it for someone to learn sql if they

Oh well, there's plenty of way to develop database application without coding.
If you want to learn, maybe try those tools and see for yourself.

SQL is not about coding but relational databases. You can store data in relations and then combine the data to get certain results. That's what SQL helps you doing.

It was invented with non-technical users in mind, so it should be doable. Depends on what you want to do with it i suppose.

it's not a very fun thing to learn on it's own but you can do it.

generally the challenges that you face are when you try and make an application that uses a database

>>55393717
For someone with no prior experience with programming, it can be a little odd. I would say that it is certainly easier to try and learn SQL than it is to learn C++, but there are many similarities.
With SQL, you still have to learn proper syntax usage along with keywords that perform the functions you want.

So, it can be hard in the sense that you still need to figure out how to write the syntax for whatever keyword it is you are using along with figuring out how to properly fill in parameters.

However, it can also be easy because, unlike say Java or C++, the operations are much more straightforward because at the end of the day, you're working with sets of data and tables - not trying to figure out how to compile several lines of code that go far beyond the linear concepts of table joins or union statements.

What makes SQL artificially harder, at least in my learning experience, is the IDE (is it even called that) oracle has for it. All in all, SQL is definitely easier to learn than the mainstream programming languages.