A human factors experimental comparison of SQL and QBE

Abstract

SQL and QBE are compared in the same operating environment, and the effects of query language type and other variables on user performance and satisfaction are studied. The experimental design combined a factorial design and a counterbalanced design in an effort to compare SQL and QBE. The results indicated that query language type affects user performance in paper and pencil testing, with QBE users having higher scores than SQL users. In contrast, in online testing, query language type had no effect on user performance. In addition, under certain conditions, query complexity had a significant effect on user performance and user satisfaction was influenced by query language type. Moreover, order of exposure impacted user performance on the basis of interaction with query language type, query complexity, and programming experience.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>