--- title: "GQL, the graph database world's answer to SQL?" publication: "DB Weekly" issue: 272 published_at: "2019-09-20" canonical_url: "https://dbweekly.com/issues/272" --- This week's database news #272 — September 20, 2019 [Read on the Web](https://dbweekly.com/issues/272) Database Weekly [![\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/w_1280,e_sharpen:60/vuqkjdgjvjanqx1gnyjs.jpg)](https://neo4j.com/press-releases/query-language-graph-databases-international-standard/) [New Query Language for Graph Databases to Become International Standard](https://neo4j.com/press-releases/query-language-graph-databases-international-standard/) — GQL is set to be the first new ISO-standardized database language since SQL and Neo4j are, perhaps unsurprisingly, strongly behind it. More [background info here.](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sql-now-gql-alastair-green/) Neo4j [Yugabyte DB 2.0 GA: A 'Jepsen Tested', High-Performance Distributed SQL DBMS](https://blog.yugabyte.com/announcing-yugabyte-db-2-0-ga-jepsen-tested-high-performance-distributed-sql/) — Yugabyte DB is a Google Spanner-inspired, cloud-native distributed SQL database that’s 100% open source and [aims to be Postgres compatible](https://blog.yugabyte.com/postgresql-compatibility-in-yugabyte-db-2-0/) in most cases. Kannan Muthukkaruppan [![\](https://copm.s3.amazonaws.com/eedd88df.png)](https://www.sqlprostudio.com/ads/dbweekly.php) [SQLPro Studio - macOS and iOS Database Client](https://www.sqlprostudio.com/ads/dbweekly.php) — A powerful suite of native apps for working with all sorts of SQL databases. Easily browse and edit records, either visually or using a truly great query editor. If you work with MSSQL, MySQL, Postgres or SQLite make sure to check out SQLPro. Get 1 year free. Hankinsoft Development, Inc sponsor [memcached Adds Support for Restoring Its Cache Between Restarts](https://github.com/memcached/memcached/wiki/ReleaseNotes1518) — Version 1.5.18 of anything doesn’t sound _too_ exciting, but this is a big step for memcached and will make both upgrades and recovery a lot easier _if_ you are able to provide the right type of filesystem for it (it uses DAX). [More discussion here.](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21011755) memcached community [Database Leaks Data On Most of Ecuador's Citizens](https://www.zdnet.com/article/database-leaks-data-on-most-of-ecuadors-citizens-including-6-7-million-children/) — A huge leak of 20.8 million user records came via an insecure Elasticsearch deployment. I suspect some admins forget Elasticsearch is not just a ‘search engine’ but a complete document-based database.. Catalin Cimpanu 💻 Jobs [Find a DB job through Vettery](https://www.vettery.com/tech?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=cooper-dbweekly&utm_term=tech&utm_content=grouped&utm_campaign=ad-88878) — Vettery specializes in tech roles and is completely free for job seekers. Create a profile to get started. Vettery 📒 Articles & Tutorials [What’s Faster? `COUNT(*)` or `COUNT(1)`?](https://blog.jooq.org/2019/09/19/whats-faster-count-or-count1/) — Spoiler: It doesn’t matter, unless you’re using PostgreSQL. Lukas Eder [Why Use TimescaleDB Over Relational Databases?](https://docs.timescale.com/latest/introduction/timescaledb-vs-postgres) — The interesting thing is that while TimescaleDB is a time series database, it _is_ built as an extension on _top_ of a relational database, Postgres! TimescaleDB [Free O’Reilly Book: Graph Algorithms](https://neo4j.com/graph-algorithms-book/?utm_source=db-weekly&utm_medium=nsltrsl&utm_campaign=dl) — Get hands-on examples of how to use graph algorithms to forecast behavior, with sample code and tips for over 20 algorithms. Neo4j sponsor [Harnessing Machine Learning to Make Managing Storage Less of A Chore](https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/09/can-artificial-intelligence-make-enterprise-hybrid-storage-better/) — Jobs that could originally be managed by a single storage architect now require increasingly large teams of specialists but AI is able to help keep things efficient. Jim Salter (Ars Technica) ▶[Discussing the MongoDB Data Platform](https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/2019/09/11/mongodb-data-platform-with-andrew-davidson/) — MongoDB’s Director of Cloud Products talks about the idea of “data platforms” where a single, transactional database isn’t enough, but instead you might also have a data warehouse, search index, etc. Software Engineering Daily podcast 🛠 Tools & Code [Introducing NoSQL Workbench for Amazon DynamoDB](https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/09/introducing-nosql-workbench-for-amazon-dynamodb-now-in-preview/) — AWS has released a Windows and macOS app for working with DynamoDB. Beware, however, as there are numerous reports of it breaking `~/.aws/credentials` files (so be sure to back yours up!) Amazon Web Services [PostgreSQL 12 Beta 4 Released](https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/1972/) — Contains previews of all features that will be available in the final release of Postgres 12 and is “likely the final beta release” prior to a release candidate. As always, the beta [release notes](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/12/release-12.html) may be useful, as may Postgres’s [How to Beta Test](https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/HowToBetaTest) docs. PostgreSQL Global Development Group [A Browser-Based MongoDB 4.2 Playground](https://mongoplayground.net/) — Inspired by similar ‘playgrounds’ for [Go](https://play.golang.org/) or [JavaScript](http://jsbin.com/?html,output), this page lets you play with a MongoDB database from your browser. It’s [open source](https://github.com/feliixx/mongoplayground) if you want to run your own instance (internally, say). Adrien Petel A **[Cooperpress](https://cooperpress.com/)** publication. 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