Why is a 50-year-old language still how we ask data questions?
SQL was nearly called SEQUEL, and it lost its vowels because of a trademark held by a British aircraft company.
โถ Start the storySQL is still how we ask data questions because it lets you describe the answer you want and leaves the how to the database. A reads almost like an English request: choose these columns, from this table, where this condition holds. You never say which files to open or in what order to walk through the rows. That one trick made it the most widely used database language, and half a century on it still holds that place.
SQL was developed at IBM in the early 1970s by Donald Chamberlin and Raymond Boyce, after they learned about Codd's relational model. Their first attempt, SQUARE, was hard to use because of its subscript and superscript notation. The follow-up was called SEQUEL, short for Structured English Language. It was renamed SQL, dropping the vowels, because a British company already held the on SEQUEL.
Older interfaces made programmers fetch records one at a time and spell out how to reach each one, for example with or without an . SQL introduced accessing many records with a single command and removed the need to say how to reach them. In June 1979 Relational Software, now Oracle, shipped one of the first commercial versions, and IBM's endorsement pulled the industry towards it. SQL became an ANSI standard in 1986 and an ISO standard in 1987.
Older interfaces
- Fetch records one at a time
- Say how to reach each record
SQL
- One command for many records
- Say what you want, not how
It is not perfect. Almost no system follows the standard fully, so code often needs tweaks between databases. But it remains the most widely used database language, and its way of asking for results, not recipes, has even shaped languages for databases that are not relational.
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Recap
SQL describes the result you want and leaves the how to the database.
๐ก A trick to remember it ยท Order the meal, not the recipe: SQL names the dish and lets the kitchen decide how to cook it.
Surprising fact ยท SQL began as SEQUEL and lost its vowels over a trademark.
Sources (3)
No source, no claim. Every fact in this lesson (16 claims) cites at least one of these.