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Data Manipulation Language (DML)

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Database Systems

  • 467 Accesses

Synonym

Query language

Definition

A data manipulation language allows users to access and retrieve database contents in both interactive and embedded (in a host programming language) modes. DML includes constructs that allow retrieval and manipulation of database content. The more common and popular term used for DML is the “query language.” The ISO standard SQL language is the most popular DML for relational databases. DML can be declarative, specifying the properties of the data that is to be retrieved from the database or procedural where the use specifies how to access the data. Modern DBMSs are expected to have declarative DMLs (such as SQL), which allows the DBMS to convert them into a relational algebra expression before optimizing their execution. There are other data manipulation languages for specific DBMSs – e.g., SPARQL for RDF data, OQL for object database systems, and XQuery for XML DBMSs.

Historical Background

The definition of a DML dates back to the origins of database...

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Recommended Reading

  1. Elmasri R, Navathe S. Fundamentals of database systems, 7th edn. Pearson; 2016.

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  2. Silberschatz A, Korth HF, Sudarshan S. Database system concepts, 6th edn. McGraw-Hill; 2010.

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  3. Ramakrishnan R, Gehrke J. Database management systems, 3rd edn. McGraw-Hill; 2002.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    M. Tamer Özsu

Authors
  1. M. Tamer Özsu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. Tamer Özsu .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Ling Liu

  2. University of Waterloo School of Computer Science, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

    M. Tamer Özsu

Section Editor information

  1. Computer Science, The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, USA

    Ramez Elmasri

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© 2018 Springer Science+Business Media LLC

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Özsu, M.T. (2018). Data Manipulation Language (DML). In: Liu, L., Özsu, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7993-3_80654-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7993-3_80654-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-7993-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-7993-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Computer SciencesReference Module Computer Science and Engineering

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