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Flat File Database Query Language


Glenn Fowler
gsf@research.att.com

AT&T Bell Laboratories
Murray Hill, New Jersey 07974

Abstract

cql is a UNIX* system tool that applies C style query expressions to flat file databases. In some respects it is yet another addition to the toolbox of programmable file filters: grep [Hume88], sh [Bour78] [BK89], awk [AKW88], and perl [Wall]. However, by restricting its problem domain, cql takes advantage of optimizations not available to these more general purpose tools.

This paper describes the cql data description and query language, query optimizations, and provides comparisons with other tools.


Download the full text of this paper in ASCII (28,587 bytes) form.

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