February 23, 2026
Pipe dreams vs SQL screams
Pipelined Relational Query Language, Pronounced "Prequel"
Meet “Prequel”: the new data tool people love, roast the name, and ask if it’s alive
TLDR: PRQL (“Prequel”) is an open-source language that turns data queries into readable pipelines. Commenters roast the name, question if updates stalled, and argue Google’s pipe syntax and Microsoft’s Kusto have momentum, while SQL purists say PRQL’s “procedural” vibe shouldn’t replace the declarative classic.
PRQL—pronounced “Prequel”—wants to make data work feel like assembling Lego bricks: readable pipelines, variables, and friendly features, all compiled back into regular SQL. It’s open-source, Rust-built, and even has a Playground. But the crowd immediately zeroed in on the name drama: one commenter joked that if you must include a pronunciation guide, you’ve already lost, predicting people will say “P-R-Q-L” forever. Cue Star Wars jokes and “May the pipes be with you” memes.
Then came the is it alive panic: folks noticed the blog hasn’t been updated since March 2023, sparking “is this stalled?” threads—only to find fresh commits last week in the repo, which calmed some nerves. The bigger brawl? Momentum vs elegance. Fans say PRQL looks cleaner than old-school SQL; skeptics point to Google’s newer pipe syntax already running in production and Microsoft’s Kusto doing similar tricks. One hardliner fired off that “procedural language fanatics” keep trying to unseat SQL’s declarative style—the classic vs remix fight is on. Meanwhile, Hacker News types nod at the Rust compiler and whisper about “orthogonal features,” while everyone else grabs popcorn to see whether “Prequel” becomes the sequel to SQL—or just a cult favorite.
Key Points
- •PRQL is a modern, pipelined language for data transformation that compiles to multiple SQL dialects.
- •It offers concise syntax with variables, functions, and supports embedded SQL where needed.
- •PRQL is open-source, aims to be a standard foundation for tools, and has a compiler written in Rust.
- •Features include date literals, ranges, f-strings, type checking (in progress), and improved null handling.
- •Showcase examples demonstrate PRQL-to-SQL mappings for filtering, aggregation, window functions, and derived columns.