SQL: Structured Query Language

Early work on the theory of relational databases (that is, databases in which data is stored in multiple tables of varying sizes that can contain not just data but relations between data elements) by E.F. Codd resulted in IBM, in the late 1970s, creating a language called SEQUEL (Structured English Query Language), later shortened to SQL. This language attempted to standardize into an English-like syntax the methods by which data could be extracted from or inserted into a database. Using terms such as SELECT data FROM table and WHERE field IS NOT NULL, the syntax of SQL is easy to learn—although the concepts behind what that syntax describes can be rather more challenging.

A database is organized as shown in the ...

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