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SQL and relational database management systems or RDBMS were invented simultaneously by Edgar F. Codd in the early 1970s. The simple fact that both arrived early in the life of computing, and that for 90% of the time they just work, means databases have become a 'solved problem' you no longer need to think about.
It's like how MailChimp has become synonymous with sending email newsletters. If you want to work with data you use RDBMS and SQL. In fact, there usually needs to be a good reason not to use them. Just like there needs to be a good reason not to use MailChimp for sending emails, or Stripe for taking card payments.
But people do use other other email automation software and payment solutions, just like people use NoSQL databases. Yet even with other database technology available, albeit less mature technology, SQL still reigns and reigns well.
So, finally, here are 8 reasons we still use SQL 43 years after it was first cooked up.
It's clickbait, I tell ya!
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 04 2017, @09:45PM
Alternative? The folks at C2 drafted up a query language tentatively called "SMEQL" that is more functional in nature, where any new operations are new functions (or API-like calls) instead of the COBOL-esque key-words used by SQL.
SMEQL Overview [c2.com]
Base operators [c2.com]
Example query [rosettacode.org]
Column selection can be "meta-tized" in that you can use the regular table operations to "compute" which columns to show (SELECT equivalent). This can allow one to use a data-dictionary (column description table(s)) to select columns.
Spread the word.
Another possible contender is Tutorial-D and its close cousin "REL", but it also suffers some syntactic complexity problems. The REL implementers are allegedly more concerned with "relational purity" than syntax simplification. The purity issue is not a show-stopper with SMEQL, and "solving" it would only have a minor impact on the draft SMEQL standard. (The "purity wars" get nasty.)