SQB : Session-based Query Browsing for More Effective Query Reuse

Scientists are generating more data than ever before and are increasingly putting that data (or corresponding metadata) inside a relational database accessible through SQL. Composing non-trivial SQL queries, however, is difficult. Just like code reuse, query reuse can facilitate and accelerate the task of composing new queries. A key challenge is how best to facilitate this reuse. In this paper, we introduce Smart Query Browser (SQB), a tool for searching and browsing through a repository of SQL queries. SQB applies the idea of a query session to improve query browsing and reuse. Informally, a query session is a set of queries authored by a single user to achieve a specific information goal. To evaluate SQB, we conduct a user study with 16 users and find that SQB reduces the query composition time by 57% compared with a traditional, unassisted query composition setting.