Techniques and solutions are described for determining elements of different database tables have a semantic relationship, and optionally executing a value query using such tables. Tables, including those lacking a technical relationship (such as having a foreign key relationship or association) can be semantically related if an element of the table has the same semantic identifier, such as a domain, as an element of another table. The semantic relationship can exist even if other information, such as field names associated with a respective semantic identifier, are different between the two tables. A source table can be semantically related to one or more other tables, including indirectly based on semantic relationships between two or more of such other tables. Semantic table information can be recursively analyzed, including in a hierarchical manner, to identify a set of semantically related tables. The analysis can be constrained, such as to avoid loops or limit result size or running time.