Database Systems - Programming Languages and Database Programming - Imperative vs Declarative

There are 2 main types of programming languages

Imperative languages – They tell what and how when programming. They follow control flow logic such as branching or loops, to determine the execution order. They use compilers to translate the code you write into low-level machine code or bytecode. There are 2 types of imperative languages.
procedural such as C or COBOL which are made up of functions or subroutines.
object-oriented, such as Java or Python, can stores data in object types, which have data and methods

Declarative languages – They tell what, but not how, when programming. Logical expressions determine what results are processed, and they don’t have control-flow statements. Instead of compilers, they use optimizers to help speed up statement execution time. SQL is the most popular declarative language.

Database programming

Database queries are mostly written in SQL, a declarative language, because it is easier than imperative languages. You can write complex queries with a single query, as opposed to lengthy code to write conditional statements. The optimizer also makes it faster. Developing applications with both SQL and any programing language like Java or Python is called database programming.

Database programming requires developers to get used to the SQL syntax as it is much different than programming language code like Java or Python. While these programming languages need loops and complex conditions to get results output, SQL can do the same with a single SQL statement.

Database programming techniques

To help simplify database programming, there are a few techniques:

Embedded SQL – lets you to add SQL statements directly in your program. For example , Oracle has Pro*C, which is an embedded SQL in C. It is not widely used because it’s difficult to use with OOP languages, requires a different compiler, and it increases network traffic.
Procedural SQL(PL/SQL) – extends SQL with control-flow statements. It’s mostly used for database applications. Procedural has more advantages than embedded, but is not as widely used as an API.
API (application programming interface) – a code library that contains all kinds of database functions that you can use in your programs. For example, Java has JDBC to make connecting and updating a database easier.

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