SQL (Structured Query Language) is a standardized programming language used for managing relational databases and performing various operations on the data in them. Initially created in the 1970s, SQL is regularly used by database administrators, as well as by developers writing data integration scripts and data analysts looking to set up and run analytical queries.
The uses of SQL include modifying database table and index structures; adding, updating and deleting rows of data; and retrieving subsets of information from within a database for transaction processing and analytics applications. Queries and other SQL operations take the form of commands written as statements -- commonly used SQL statements include select, add, insert, update, delete, create, alter and truncate.
SQL became the de facto standard programming language for relational databases after they emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Also known as SQL databases, relational systems comprise a set of tables containing data in rows and columns. Each column in a table corresponds to a category of data -- for example, customer name or address -- while each row contains a data value for the intersecting column.
Nov 5, 2018