[Term of the Day]: Data Definition Language (DDL)

Term of the Day

"Data Definition Language"

Definition — What is Data Definition Language (DDL)?

Structured Query Language (SQL), as we all know is the database language by the use of which we can perform certain operations on the existing database and we can also use this language to create a database. SQL uses certain commands like Create, Drop, Insert etc. to carry out the required tasks.

The DDL or Data Definition Language is used to define the structure of data containers and objects within the database. It simply deals with descriptions of the database schema and is used to create and modify the structure of database objects in the database. These database objects include views, schema, tables, indexes, etc.

Common DDL commands are:

CREATE – is used to create the database or its objects (like table, index, function, views, store procedure and triggers).
DROP – is used to delete objects from the database.
ALTER – is used to alter the structure of the database.
TRUNCATE – is used to remove all records from a table, including all spaces allocated for the records are removed.
COMMENT – is used to add comments to the data dictionary.
RENAME – is used to rename an object existing in the database.