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The reason why is historical. SQL (structured query language) originally came from SEQUEL (structured english query language) and was designed to emulate a norm
by manigandham 7y ago
The reason why is historical. SQL (structured query language) originally came from SEQUEL (structured english query language) and was designed to emulate a normal English sentence as a query.
'SELECT columns FROM table' makes sense when you're asking it literally. However SQL and relational DB's have evolved since then and the English grammar is now awkward. It would be nice to see newer dialects accept the inverse order to help with tooling and structure.
- kragen 7y agoI'm a native English speaker and both "from the top shelf select a book" and "select a book from the top shelf" are perfectly valid syntax, even if the second one is more common.