UCLA RePL develops Prela, a new query language based on binary relations

Introduction to Prela

Prela is a new query language under development at UCLA RePL. It introduces a different approach to querying data compared to traditional languages like SQL. The core idea behind Prela is its reliance on binary relations, which are tables with exactly two columns.

Binary Relations Explained

The concept of using only binary relations might initially seem restrictive, but it allows for the decomposition of wider tables into multiple binary relations. For instance, a three-column table can be broken down into three separate binary relations, each mapping a row number to a specific column value. This method represents data in a generalized functional form, enabling composition similar to how functions are composed in programming.

Conciseness and Query Structure

A key benefit of Prela's design is the conciseness of its queries. An example query that finds movies produced by American companies with character names in their titles and outputs the title and cast member aliases, spans significantly fewer lines in Prela than its SQL equivalent, which would require over 20 lines of code. This reduction in code length is attributed to the language's foundational principles and how it handles data relationships.