Languages and Programming Interfaces

Abstract

Crucial to the dominance of the relational database was the almost universal adoption of the {SQL} language as the mechanism for querying and modifying data. {SQL} is not a perfect language, but it has demonstrated sufficient flexibility to meet the needs of both non-programming database users and professional database programmers. Programmers embed {SQL} in programming languages, while non-programmers use {SQL} either explicitly within a query tool or implicitly when a {BI} tool uses {SQL} under the hood to talk to the database. Prior to the introduction of {SQL,} most {IT} departments labored with a backlog of requests for reports; {SQL} allowed the business user to “self-serve” these requests.