Yahoo Query Language


Yahoo! Query Language is an SQL-like query language created by Yahoo! as part of their Developer Network. YQL is designed to retrieve and manipulate data from APIs through a single Web interface, thus allowing mashups that enable developers to create their own applications using Yahoo! Pipes online tool.
Initially launched in October 2008 with access to Yahoo APIs, February 2009 saw the addition of open data tables from third parties such as Google Reader, the Guardian, and The New York Times. Some of these APIs still require an API key to access them. On April 29 of 2009, Yahoo introduced the capability to execute the tables of data built through YQL using JavaScript run on the company's servers for free. On January 3, 2019, Yahoo retired the YQL API service.
WWW Official Site

Examples

Filter RSS feeds
select title, link from rss where url = 'https://www.engadget.com/rss.xml'
Convert CSV to JSON or XML
select * from csv where url='http://download.finance.yahoo.com/d/quotes.csv?s=YHOO,GOOG,AAPL&f=sl1d1t1c1ohgv&e=.csv' and columns='symbol,price,date,time,change,col1,high,low,col2'
Extract HTML via CSS Selectors
SELECT * FROM data.html.cssselect WHERE url='http://www.w3.org/' AND css='ul.theme'
Get AppLinks meta data
SELECT * from applinks WHERE url IN
Parse any XML source
select Status.presence from xml where url = 'http://mystatus.skype.com/pjjdonnelly.xml' and Status.presence.lang = 'en'

Rate limits

Use of the YQL should not exceed reasonable request volume. Access is limited as below:
  • Per application limit : 100,000 calls per day;
  • Per IP limits: /v1/public/*: 2,000 calls per hour; /v1/yql/*: 20,000 calls per hour.