Datalog

What Does Datalog Mean?

Datalog is a programming language used in deductive database work. It is part of another language called Prolog and incorporates basic logic principles for data integration, database queries, etc. Datalog is used by many open-source systems and other database systems.

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Techopedia Explains Datalog

Database programmers like Datalog for its simplicity. As a simple declarative logic-based language, Datalog relies on a conventional clause format. In a declarative language, the user enters the items that he/she wants to find and then the system takes over, finding values that comply with the user’s request.

Like other types of query systems, a Datalog query involves setting up a command-based premise: for example, many simpler Datalog queries consist of an object and a set of modifiers or constraints in parentheses. The simple syntax allows administrators to quickly learn how to get the results they need from the database. However, as with other systems, Datalog users have to deal with the emergence of raw or unstructured data sets in a database technology. In other words, whereas databases of the past tended to have strict “table” data formats, today’s databases may have much more abstracted information that has to be queried and handled in a different way.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…