In response to my recent post on Making Ad Hoc SQL Tables From Org Tables, commenter Fritz Grabo points to another, more general system, for doing the same thing. As Grabo points out, the method depends on the external package dsq from Multiprocess Labs. That package allows SQL queries on a number of different data types.
Grabo’s contribution is ob-dsq.el, a package that integrates dsq into the Emacs Org Babel framework. You can get an idea for what it is and how it works from his blog post. Even though my knowledge of SQL is limited, I can see how useful a facility like this can be. If you have a reasonable facility with SQL and are an Emacs user, this seems like it would be a worthwhile package. SQL is a wonderfully expressive way of querying tables and it’s nice to bring it to bear from Emacs. It’s another win if you’re committed to the reproducible research way of working.
The shortest way of seeing what’s going on is to read Grabo’s blog post. If, after reading that, you decide to adopt the system, the other links should tell you everything you need to know.