Relational databases revolutionized data retrieval by allowing descriptions of required data instead of relying on link-walking, thanks to SQL's declarative nature. The emergence of NoSQL databases prioritized scalability, uptime, and redundancy, often sacrificing query flexibility. However, Couchbase 4.0's introduction of N1QL offers a balance by providing a scalable, clustered document database with a generally applicable declarative query language for JSON documents. N1QL leverages familiar SQL syntax with enhancements for handling semi-structured, nested data, retaining the ad-hoc query capabilities, including JOINs, without extensive new learning. This development marks a significant advancement by combining NoSQL scalability with SQL's query flexibility.