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KEYNOTE
Hey SQL, Do That Again! (And Again, And Again, ...)
AT A GLANCE
Role
University Professor
Organisation
University of Tübingen
Category
Hero
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Torsten Grust is a professor of Computer Science at Universität Tübingen, Germany, where he leads the Database Systems research group since 2008. Torsten performs research into the design, compilation, optimization, and evaluation of a variety of database languages. In this work, he often walks the fine line between database query and programming language technology. His group develops techniques that turn relational database systems into scalable processors also for non-relational query and programming languages. Torsten is at his happiest whenever he finds new evidence that database and programming language research can mutually benefit each other.
TALK
Hey SQL, Do That Again! (And Again, And Again, ...)
Around 1999, SQL added recursive common table expressions (CTEs) to express iterative computation in SQL. To this day, these CTEs come with the infamous reputation of being clunky, hard to read, even harder to write, space-hungry, and inefficient to execute. More than 25 years later it is thus high time to revisit iteration in SQL. In this talk, I will do just that and shed light on our work on new iterative SQL constructs that have already found their way into DuckDB and Umbra. Iteration turns SQL into an expressive programming language—albeit with a somewhat... peculiar taste. I'll bring a variety of funky SQL showcases. No dull SELECT queries on departments and employees, promised.
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