Yes, SQL isn't good for data analysis. I recently had to help one of our data analysts port some code from Impala to Hive, and the query they gave me was terrifying: a dozen CTEs strung together in a query that was literally hundreds of lines long.
However, I think we already have an answer to that complexity, and it's not Malloy, but data frames. With data frames you can split your query into logical steps, each of which can be debugged and examined without having to rewrite the query like you have to with CTEs.
Comments
Yes, SQL isn't good for data analysis. I recently had to help one of our data analysts port some code from Impala to Hive, and the query they gave me was terrifying: a dozen CTEs strung together in a query that was literally hundreds of lines long.
However, I think we already have an answer to that complexity, and it's not Malloy, but data frames. With data frames you can split your query into logical steps, each of which can be debugged and examined without having to rewrite the query like you have to with CTEs.