thinQmaster Virtual testing partner Adaptive practice exams that find your weak spots and drill them. Every answer explained. From $69
Enroll

thinQmaster

Find your exam

Five questions free, before you decide.

Step 1 · choose a vendor

In one of our camps? Your practice exams come with the tuition — they are on your study page already.

Data & Analytics · Foundational

Structured Query Language (SQL)

The standard declarative language for defining, querying and manipulating data in relational databases.

Definition

SQL lets users describe what data they want rather than how to retrieve it; the query optimizer chooses the execution method. It is grouped into sublanguages: DDL, DML, DQL, DCL and TCL. SQL is standardized by ANSI/ISO, but every vendor adds its own dialect, such as T-SQL, PL/SQL or Snowflake SQL.

Example

SELECT Region, SUM(Sales) FROM Orders GROUP BY Region;

Exam tip

SQL is declarative: exams may contrast it with procedural languages, where you specify the steps.

Related terms