Are LLMs Overkill for Databases?: A Study on the Finiteness of SQL
Translating natural language to SQL for data retrieval has become more accessible thanks to code generation LLMs. But how hard is it to generate SQL code? While databases can become unbounded in complexity, the complexity of queries is bounded by real life utility and human needs. With a sample of 376 databases, we show that SQL queries, as translations of natural language questions are finite in practical complexity. There is no clear monotonic relationship between increases in database table count and increases in complexity of SQL queries. In their template forms, SQL queries follow a Power Law-like distribution of frequency where 70% of our tested queries can be covered with just 13% ...
| Authors | Yue Li, David Mimno, Unso Eun Seo Jo |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.AI |
| Published | 26 March 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 26 March 2026 |
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