SQL stands for Structured Query Language and is a programming language used to manage relational databases and perform various operations on the data stored in them. SQL is a tool for organizing, managing, and retrieving archived data from a database. It is a standard language for accessing and manipulating databases. SQL allows you to query the database in a variety of ways, using English-like statements. SQL is used for the following:

• Modifying database table and index structures
• Adding, updating, and deleting rows of data
• Retrieving subsets of information from within relational database management systems (RDBMSes) -- this information can be used for transaction processing, analytics applications, and other applications that require communicating with a relational database

SQL commands are divided into several different types, including the following:

• Data Definition Language (DDL)
• Data Manipulation Language (DML)
• Data Control Language (DCL)
• Transaction Control Language (TCL)

SQL is a client/server language, and personal computer programs use SQL to communicate over a network with database servers that save shared facts. SQL is a database gateway language, and in a computer network with a mixture of various DBMS products, SQL is frequently utilized in a gateway that lets one logo of DBMS speak with every other logo. Despite the inaccuracy of its name, SQL has emerged as the standard language for using relational databases.