A HUMAN-FACTORS EXPERIMENTAL COMPARISON OF SQL AND QBE

Critical success factors dictate that query languages be 1) easy to le arn, 2) easy to understand, and 3) easy to use. Although a query langu age may influence the user's behavior by its syntax, it is unrealistic to evaluate a query language without considering the influence of its interactive user interface features. In addition, in order to allow f or a fair comparison of query languages, the languages should be 1) di rected toward the same type of users, 2) used in a similar system envi ronment, and 3) use the same DBMS. This research focuses its attention on comparing SQL and QBE in the same operating environment and studyi ng the effects of query language type and other variables on user perf ormance and satisfaction. The experimental design combined a factorial design and a counterbalanced design in an effort to compare SQL and Q BE. The results indicated that query language type affects user perfor mance in paper and pencil testing with QBE users having higher scores than SQL users. In contrast, in on-line testing, query language type h ad no effect on user performance. In addition, under certain condition s, query complexity had a significant effect on user performance and u ser satisfaction was influenced by query language type. Moreover, orde r of exposure impacted user performance on the basis of its interactio n with query language type, query complexity, and programming experien ce.