Menu
Home
People
Places
Arts
History
Plants & Animals
Science
Life & Culture
Technology
Reference.org
Data manipulation language
open-in-new
<p>A data manipulation language (DML) is a computer <a href="/facts/Programming_language/cWTYbgWa">programming language</a> used for adding (inserting), deleting, and modifying (updating) data in a <a href="/facts/Database/VYcpkevb">database</a>. A DML is often a <a href="/facts/Sublanguage/UlDG1CT3">sublanguage</a> of a broader <a href="/facts/Database/VYcpkevb">database language</a> such as <a href="/facts/SQL/UjQLJcYm">SQL</a>, with the DML comprising some of the operators in the language. Read-only selecting of data is sometimes distinguished as being part of a separate <a href="/facts/Data_query_language/3QX0t3wc">data query language</a> (DQL), but it is closely related and sometimes also considered a component of a DML; some operators may perform both selecting (reading) and writing. </p><p>A popular data manipulation language is that of <a href="/facts/Structured_Query_Language/UjQLJcYm">Structured Query Language</a> (SQL), which is used to retrieve and manipulate <a href="/facts/Data/AUBFN97o">data</a> in a <a href="/facts/Relational_database/pEKGmJLy">relational database</a>. Other forms of DML are those used by <a href="/facts/Information_Management_System/bW0zbK9N">IMS</a>/DLI, <a href="/facts/CODASYL/Vj9bpJ33">CODASYL</a> databases, such as <a href="/facts/IDMS/2syhDzCk">IDMS</a> and others. </p>