Astronomical Data Query Language

Astronomical Data Query Language

Stable release	2.0 / 30 October 2008;16 years ago (2008-10-30)
Influenced by
SQL

Astronomical Data Query Language (ADQL) is a language for astronomical data query based on SQL 92. ^[1]

Overview

ADQL is a specialized variant of the SQL query language adapted for accessing the astronomical datasets of the virtual observatory, ^[2] via the Table access protocol (TAP). ^[3] ADQL is designed to handle large datasets distributed over several locations, ^[4] while not retrieving data that is not needed. ^[5]

Language

ADQL is a query language that allows data to be retrieved via a single command, the select statement, which is designed to perform as the select statement in the SQL language. ^[2] ADQL has extensions designed to improve handling of astronomical data such as spherical co-ordinates that are not handled by standard SQL. ^[2]

Implementations

ADQL is implemented in packages such as TOPCAT. ^[6]

Example

SELECTsource_id,ra,decFROMgaiadr1.tgas_sourceWHEREphot_g_mean_flux>13

References

Footnotes

1. Osuna & Ortiz 2008, Abstract.
2. Gaia 2021.
3. Minin & Rossi 2020, p. 39.
4. Demleitner & Heinl 2019, p. 1.
5. Heinl & Jordan 2017, 2m.
6. Pössel 2020, p. 28.

Sources

• Demleitner, Markus; Heinl, Hendrik (2019). "Gaia Data Queries with ADQL" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 October 2019. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
• Gaia (2021). "An Astronomy Data Query Language cookbook to accompany Gaia Data Release 1". Archived from the original on 12 January 2021. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
• Heinl, Hendrik; Jordan, Stefen (28 February 2017) [November 2016]. Gaia: Astronomy Data Query Language (ADQL) Introduction. Gaia data workshop at ESA's European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC). ESA's European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC). Archived from the original on 3 January 2022. Retrieved 24 September 2021– via YouTube.
• Minin, Mikhail; Rossi, Angelo Pio (2020). "4. Synergy in Astronomy and Geoscience". Knowledge Discovery in Big Data from Astronomy and Earth Observation. Amsterdam: Elsevier. ISBN   9780128191545. OCLC   1144737450.
• Osuna, Pedro; Ortiz, Inaki, eds. (30 October 2008). "Astronomical Data Query Language". www.ivoa.net. Archived from the original on 27 May 2019. Retrieved 3 January 2022.
• Pössel, Markus (January 2020). "A Beginner's Guide to Working with Astronomical Data". The Open Journal of Astrophysics. 3 (1): 2. arXiv: 1905.13189v2 . Bibcode:2020OJAp....3E...2P. doi:10.21105/astro.1905.13189. S2CID   170079000.