WHAT IS ECL?

ECL - Enterprise Control Language is designed to handle and manipulate immense datasets which make it a perfect language to solve big data problems. ECL can be used for both ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load) and querying data. ECL is a declarative language which allows processing big data without the need of a programmer being involved with details and in-depth imperative decisions.

ECL vs SQL

ECL and SQL can both be used to query a relational database. Following is a table displaying similar features between ECL and SQL.

SQL	ECL
Declarative Language	Declarative Language
Database Server	Thor Cluster or Roxie Cluster
An SQL Table	An ECL Logical File
An SQL Editor	VSCode Editor or ECL Cloud IDE
An SQL File	An ECL File
Executing SQL means submitting the written SQL to the Database Server which in turn compiles it and executes it	Executing ECL means submitting the written ECL to a Thor or Roxie cluster which in turn compiles and executes it
SQL Execution History/Logs	ECL Workunits Database & ECL Watch Workunits View

Language Highlights

ECL is not a case sensitive language, but it is recommended to use uppercase for reserved words
White spaces are ignored, but it is strongly recommended to use white space for clarity and readability
ECL is a declarative programming language, which means you specify what needs to be done rather than how to do it
Source-to-source compiler
ECL code gets translated to C++ that is compiled to shared libraries and executed within a custom framework

Please refer to the ECL syntax to learn about ECL standards.