Relational Algebra instead of SQL

Question

I am studying relational algebra these days and I was wondering...

Don't you thing it would be better if a compiler was existed which could compile relational algebra than compiling SQL?

In which case a database programmer would be more productive?

Is there any research on relational algebra compilers?

Thanks in advance

Spelling

Answer 1

See Tutorial D by C J Date, he also has a good rant somewhere on the evils of SQL.

Also see datalog, although not exactly relational algebra, is similar.

Zerk

I'm not at all sure what is going on. There appears to be a //tp being inserted. Look up Tutorial D on wikipedia. There is also an implementation of Tutorial D called rel. C J Date's rant is entitled "A critique of the SQL database language", but it is behind a paywall. If you are a student you should be able to get it. – Zerk

I am not a student, I was refreshing relational algebra, I have written maany lines of SQL but reconsidered relational algebra as better than SQL. – Spelling

Datalog is exactly relational algebra plus transitive closure. – Heliacal

Answer 2

On my school one student implemented relational algebra parser as a Bachelor thesis. You can test it here:
http://mufin.fi.muni.cz/projects/PA152/relalg/index.cgi

It's in czech language but I think you can get a point.

I tried to write some Relational Algebra queries and it was much better than equivalent queries in SQL! They were much shorter, simplier to write, more straightforward, more understandable. I really enjoyed to write them.

So I don't understand why we all are using SQL when there is Relational Algebra.

Avrilavrit

Answer 3

There is indeed research on compiling relational algebra

A good place to start: Thomas Neumann: Efficiently Compiling Efficient Query Plans for Modern Hardware. PVLDB 4(9): 539-550 (2011)

Desiccant