The query language OVAL which is intended for the integration with the database programming language based on C++ is proposed in this paper. The work addresses the impedance mismatch problem between the syntax and the semantics of the programming and query language. The query language OVAL is based on the functional query language FQL extending it for the manipulation of complex objects. The salient features of the OVAL query language are: (i) functional nature of the query language, which makes the language suitable for the integration with the procedural programming languages and provides modular style of query definition, (ii) the use of schema information for expressing queries and (iii) recursive evaluation of the algebraic operations on set structured complex objects.