SQL has been extremely successful as the de facto standard language for working with data. Virtually all mainstream database-like systems use SQL as their primary query language. But SQL is an old language with significant design problems, making it difficult to learn, difficult to use, and difficult to extend. Many have observed these challenges with SQL, and proposed solutions involving new languages. New language adoption is a significant obstacle for users, and none of the potential replacements have been successful enough to displace SQL.

We’ve taken a different approach – solving SQL’s problems by extending SQL. Inspired by patterns that work well in other modern data languages, we added piped data flow syntax to SQL. The results are transformative – SQL becomes a flexible language that’s easier to learn, use and extend.

We’ve seen great results from early adopters in F1 and BigQuery, showing this syntax is compelling for users, and showing the benefits of improving SQL from within, allowing users to adopt new language features incrementally.

This talk is part of the SQL or Death? Seminar Series.

Zoom Link: https://cmu.zoom.us/j/93441451665 (Passcode 261758)

Bio:
Jeff does data storage, query, and processing at Google, including leading SQL language design and implementation in GoogleSQL, the SQL implementation underneath all of Google's SQL-based products.