query by example (DB) (QBE)

Query by Example (QBE) is a query technique developed by IBM that was primarily used with databases and was based on a pattern.

With Query by Example, it was possible to filter out specific information by querying the data sets. Queries entered into an input form served as patterns for the database program to apply over the entire database population. Data entered into a table could be linked together. QBE queries could also be used to search and filter out specific groups of data. QBE queries could include logical links of the search terms.

Another type of query was Query by Form( QBF), which used data masks.