Astronomical Data Query Language

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

Astronomical Data Query Language

Stable release	2.0 / 30 October 2008 (2008-10-30)
Influenced by
SQL

Overview

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

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. ADQL has extensions designed to improve handling of astronomical data such as spherical co-ordinates that are not handled by standard SQL.

Implementations

ADQL is implemented in packages such as TOPCAT.

Example

SELECT source_id, ra, dec
FROM gaiadr1.tgas_source
WHERE phot_g_mean_flux > 13

References

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 Astonomy 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.