> For instance, a multi-step funnel, segmented on a couple of columns, would extend to several screenfuls of complex SQL, which is cumbersome to write and difficult to reason about. The only thing I loathe about SQL is its lack of re-usability. It is hard to write reusable parts and pass them around in functions. Need ten filters which you may / may not use? Write ten queries! Thankfully, the problem is solved by ORM…
Totally agree and the "write-only" nature of SQL is something that makes me crazy. Sounds like you're more of a dev. I'm an analyst, but same problem. For any analytic SQL I wrote more than a couple weeks ago, I end up throwing it out and starting from scratch because it's so hard to understand anything I wrote.
ORMs were a huge step forward for devs, but there wasn't really anything similar for analysts. Looker (where I now work after three years as a customer) is, in many ways, the equivalent of an ORM for analytics.