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Development Tools Database Foundations Creating Tables and Manipulating Data with SQL Manipulating Schema and Data

Mayur Pande
PLUS
Mayur Pande
Courses Plus Student 11,711 Points

Andrew says in this video that DDL modifies the schema.

Why would someone want to do that, is there a reason for it?

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
229,657 Points

The reason to use DDL is that it's how you create and update the organization of your database (the schema).

Say, for example, you have a database that currently stores movie titles. But you decide you also want to keep the year the movie was released. You would use DDL to add the new column for the year to your table schema.

Think of DDL as what you use to change the size and shape of a box, and DML (Data Manipulation Language) as what would change the contents of the box. Both are important tasks in handling your storage needs.