Data manipulation language

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A data manipulation language (DML) is a computer programming language used for adding (inserting), deleting, and modifying (updating) data in a database. A DML is often a sublanguage of a broader database language such as SQL, with the DML comprising some of the operators in the language.^[1] Read-only selecting of data is sometimes distinguished as being part of a separate data query language (DQL), but it is closely related and sometimes also considered a component of a DML; some operators may perform both selecting (reading) and writing.

A popular data manipulation language is that of Structured Query Language (SQL), which is used to retrieve and manipulate data in a relational database.^[2] Other forms of DML are those used by IMS/DLI, CODASYL databases, such as IDMS and others.