TLDR Dev · ARTICLES & TUTORIALS
UNDERSTANDING SQL PARSERS
Summary from the TLDR Dev newsletter
SQL parsers convert SQL text into tree structures that computers can analyze. There are many different parsers because every database has its own dialect quirks, so no single parser handles everything perfectly. If you just need to analyze queries, extract lineage, or convert between dialects, then a SQL parser is good for that, while a query engine is needed for actually running queries.