This article is about the database language.

For the IATA code, see San Carlos Airport

(California).
"SEQUEL" redirects here. For the topic of the word, see sequel. For other uses, see sequel
(disambiguation).

SQL (Structured Query Language)

Paradigm Declarative

Family Query language

Designed by Donald D. Chamberlin

Raymond F. Boyce

Developer ISO/IEC

First appeared 1974; 47 years ago

Stable release SQL:2016 / December 2016; 4 years ago

Typing discipline Static, strong

OS Cross-platform

Website www.iso.org/standard/63555.html

Major implementations

Many

Dialects

 SQL-86

 SQL-89

 SQL-92

 SQL:1999

 SQL:2003

 SQL:2006

 SQL:2008
  SQL:2011

 SQL:2016

Influenced by

Datalog

Influenced

CQL, LINQ, SPARQL, SOQL, PowerShell,[1] JPQL, jOOQ, N1QL

  Structured Query Language at Wikibooks

SQL (file format)

Filename extension .sql

Internet media type application/sql[2][3]

Developed by ISO/IEC

Initial release 1986

Type of format Database

Standard ISO/IEC 9075

Open format? Yes

Website www.iso.org/standard/63555.html

SQL (/ˌɛsˌkjuːˈɛl/ ( listen) S-Q-L,[4] /ˈsiːkwəl/ "sequel"; Structured Query Language)[5] is

a domain-specific language used in programming and designed for managing data held in
a relational database management system (RDBMS), or for stream processing in a relational data
stream management system (RDSMS). It is particularly useful in handling structured data, i.e.
data incorporating relations among entities and variables.
SQL offers two main advantages over older read–write APIs such as ISAM or VSAM. Firstly, it
introduced the concept of accessing many records with one single command. Secondly, it
eliminates the need to specify how to reach a record, e.g. with or without an index.
Originally based upon relational algebra and tuple relational calculus, SQL consists of many
types of statements,[6] which may be informally classed as sublanguages, commonly: a data query
language (DQL),[a] a data definition language (DDL),[b] a data control language (DCL), and a data
manipulation language (DML).[c][7] The scope of SQL includes data query, data manipulation
(insert, update and delete), data definition (schema creation and modification), and data access
control. Although SQL is essentially a declarative language (4GL), it also
includes procedural elements.
SQL was one of the first commercial languages to use Edgar F. Codd’s relational model. The
model was described in his influential 1970 paper, "A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared
Data Banks".[8] Despite not entirely adhering to the relational model as described by Codd, it
became the most widely used database language.[9][10]
SQL became a standard of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in 1986, and of
the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 1987.[11] Since then, the standard has
been revised to include a larger set of features. Despite the existence of standards, most SQL
code requires at least some changes before being ported to different database systems.

Contents

 1History
 2Syntax

 3Procedural extensions

 4Interoperability and standardization

o 4.1Overview

o 4.2Reasons for incompatibility

o 4.3Standardization history

o 4.4Current standard

 5Alternatives

 6Distributed SQL processing

 7Criticisms
o 7.1Design

o 7.2Other criticisms

 8SQL data types

o 8.1Predefined data types

o 8.2Constructed types

 9See also

 10Notes

 11References

 12Sources
o 12.1SQL standards documents

 13External links

History[edit]
SQL was initially developed at IBM by Donald D. Chamberlin and Raymond F. Boyce after
learning about the relational model from Edgar F. Codd[12] in the early 1970s.[13] This version,
initially called SEQUEL (Structured English Query Language), was designed to manipulate and
retrieve data stored in IBM's original quasirelational database management system, System R,
which a group at IBM San Jose Research Laboratory had developed during the 1970s.[13]
Chamberlin and Boyce's first attempt at a relational database language was Square, but it was
difficult to use due to subscript notation. After moving to the San Jose Research Laboratory in
1973, they began work on SEQUEL.[12] The acronym SEQUEL was later changed to SQL because
"SEQUEL" was a trademark of the UK-based Hawker Siddeley Dynamics Engineering Limited
company.[14]
After testing SQL at customer test sites to determine the usefulness and practicality of the
system, IBM began developing commercial products based on their System R prototype,
including System/38, SQL/DS, and DB2, which were commercially available in 1979, 1981, and
1983, respectively.[15]
In the late 1970s, Relational Software, Inc. (now Oracle Corporation) saw the potential of the
concepts described by Codd, Chamberlin, and Boyce, and developed their own SQL-
based RDBMS with aspirations of selling it to the U.S. Navy, Central Intelligence Agency, and
other U.S. government agencies. In June 1979, Relational Software introduced the first
commercially available implementation of SQL, Oracle V2 (Version2) for VAX computers.
By 1986, ANSI and ISO standard groups officially adopted the standard "Database Language
SQL" language definition. New versions of the standard were published in 1989, 1992, 1996,
1999, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2011, [12] and most recently, 2016.[16]

Syntax[edit]
Main article: SQL syntax

A chart showing several of the SQL language elements that compose a single statement

The SQL language is subdivided into several language elements, including:

 Clauses, which are constituent components of statements and queries. (In some
cases, these are optional.) [17]
 Expressions, which can produce either scalar values, or tables consisting
of columns and rows of data
 Predicates, which specify conditions that can be evaluated to SQL three-valued logic
(3VL) (true/false/unknown) or Boolean truth values and are used to limit the effects of
statements and queries, or to change program flow.
 Queries, which retrieve the data based on specific criteria. This is an important
element of SQL.
 Statements, which may have a persistent effect on schemata and data, or may
control transactions, program flow, connections, sessions, or diagnostics.
o SQL statements also include the semicolon (";") statement terminator.
Though not required on every platform, it is defined as a standard part of
the SQL grammar.
 Insignificant whitespace is generally ignored in SQL statements and queries, making
it easier to format SQL code for readability.

Procedural extensions[edit]
SQL is designed for a specific purpose: to query data contained in a relational database. SQL is
a set-based, declarative programming language, not an imperative programming
language like C or BASIC. However, extensions to Standard SQL add procedural programming
language functionality, such as control-of-flow constructs. These include:
Source Abbreviation Full name
ANSI/ISO
SQL/PSM SQL/Persistent Stored Modules
Standard

Interbase / Firebird PSQL Procedural SQL

IBM DB2 SQL PL SQL Procedural Language (implements SQL/PSM)

IBM Informix SPL Stored Procedural Language

IBM Netezza NZPLSQL[18] (based on Postgres PL/pgSQL)

Invantive Procedural SQL

Invantive PSQL[19]
(implements SQL/PSM and PL/SQL)

SQL/Persistent Stored Module (implements

MariaDB SQL/PSM, PL/SQL SQL/PSM), Procedural Language/SQL (based
on Ada)[20]

Microsoft / Sybase T-SQL Transact-SQL

SQL/Persistent Stored Module (implements

Mimer SQL SQL/PSM
SQL/PSM)

SQL/Persistent Stored Module (implements

MySQL SQL/PSM
SQL/PSM)

SQL/Persistent Stored Module (implements

MonetDB SQL/PSM
SQL/PSM)

NuoDB SSP Starkey Stored Procedures

Oracle PL/SQL Procedural Language/SQL (based on Ada)

Procedural Language/PostgreSQL Structured Query

PostgreSQL PL/pgSQL
Language (based on reduced PL/SQL)
 SAP R/3 ABAP Advanced Business Application Programming

SAP HANA SQLScript SQLScript

Sybase Watcom-SQL SQL Anywhere Watcom-SQL Dialect

Teradata SPL Stored Procedural Language

In addition to the standard SQL/PSM extensions and proprietary SQL extensions, procedural
and object-oriented programmability is available on many SQL platforms via DBMS integration
with other languages. The SQL standard defines SQL/JRT extensions (SQL Routines and Types
for the Java Programming Language) to support Java code in SQL databases. Microsoft SQL
Server 2005 uses the SQLCLR (SQL Server Common Language Runtime) to host
managed .NET assemblies in the database, while prior versions of SQL Server were restricted to
unmanaged extended stored procedures primarily written in C. PostgreSQL lets users write
functions in a wide variety of languages—including Perl, Python, Tcl, JavaScript (PL/V8) and C.[21]

Interoperability and standardization[edit]

Overview[edit]
SQL implementations are incompatible between vendors and do not necessarily completely
follow standards. In particular, date and time syntax, string concatenation,  NULL s, and
comparison case sensitivity vary from vendor to vendor. Particular exceptions
are PostgreSQL[22] and Mimer SQL[23] which strive for standards compliance, though PostgreSQL
does not adhere to the standard in how folding of unquoted names is done. The folding of
unquoted names to lower case in PostgreSQL is incompatible with the SQL standard, [24] which
says that unquoted names should be folded to upper case.[25] Thus,  Foo  should be equivalent
to  FOO  not  foo  according to the standard.
Popular implementations of SQL commonly omit support for basic features of Standard SQL,
such as the  DATE  or  TIME  data types. The most obvious such examples, and incidentally the
most popular commercial and proprietary SQL DBMSs, are Oracle (whose  DATE  behaves
as  DATETIME ,[26][27] and lacks a  TIME  type)[28] and MS SQL Server (before the 2008 version). As a
result, SQL code can rarely be ported between database systems without modifications.

Reasons for incompatibility[edit]

Several reasons for this lack of portability between database systems include:

 The complexity and size of the SQL standard means that most implementers do not
support the entire standard.
 The standard does not specify database behavior in several important areas
(e.g. indices, file storage...), leaving implementations to decide how to behave.
 The SQL standard precisely specifies the syntax that a conforming database system
must implement. However, the standard's specification of the semantics of language
constructs is less well-defined, leading to ambiguity.
 Many database vendors have large existing customer bases; where the newer
version of the SQL standard conflicts with the prior behavior of the vendor's database,
the vendor may be unwilling to break backward compatibility.
  Little commercial incentive exists for vendors to make changing database suppliers
easier (see vendor lock-in).
 Users evaluating database software tend to place other factors such as performance
higher in their priorities than standards conformance.

Standardization history[edit]
SQL was adopted as a standard by the ANSI in 1986 as SQL-86 [29] and the ISO in 1987.[11] It is
maintained by ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology, Subcommittee SC 32, Data management
and interchange.
Until 1996, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) data-management
standards program certified SQL DBMS compliance with the SQL standard. Vendors now self-
certify the compliance of their products.[30]
The original standard declared that the official pronunciation for "SQL" was an initialism: /ˌɛsˌkjuː
ˈɛl/ ("ess cue el").[9] Regardless, many English-speaking database professionals (including Donald
Chamberlin himself[31]) use the acronym-like pronunciation of /ˈsiːkwəl/ ("sequel"),[32] mirroring the
language's prerelease development name, "SEQUEL". [13][14][31]
The SQL standard has gone through a number of revisions:

Year Name Alias Comments

1986 SQL-86 SQL-87 First formalized by ANSI

Minor revision that added integrity constraints, adopted as FIPS

1989 SQL-89 FIPS 127-1
127-1

SQL2, FIPS Major revision (ISO 9075), Entry Level SQL-92 adopted as FIPS

1992 SQL-92
127-2 127-2

Added regular expression matching, recursive

queries (e.g. transitive closure), triggers, support for procedural
1999 SQL:1999 SQL3 and control-of-flow statements, nonscalar types (arrays), and
some object-oriented features (e.g. structured types), support for
embedding SQL in Java (SQL/OLB) and vice versa (SQL/JRT)

Introduced XML-related features (SQL/XML), window functions,

2003 SQL:2003 standardized sequences, and columns with autogenerated
values (including identity columns)

2006 SQL:2006 ISO/IEC 9075-14:2006 defines ways that SQL can be used with
XML. It defines ways of importing and storing XML data in an
SQL database, manipulating it within the database, and
publishing both XML and conventional SQL-data in XML form. In
addition, it lets applications integrate queries into their SQL code
with XQuery, the XML Query Language published by the World
Wide Web Consortium (W3C), to concurrently access ordinary
 SQL-data and XML documents.[33]

Legalizes ORDER BY outside cursor definitions. Adds INSTEAD

2008 SQL:2008
OF triggers, TRUNCATE statement,[34] FETCH clause

Adds temporal data (PERIOD FOR)[35] (more information

2011 SQL:2011 at: Temporal database#History). Enhancements for window
functions and FETCH clause.[36]

2016 SQL:2016 Adds row pattern matching, polymorphic table functions, JSON

Adds Part 15, multidimensional arrays (MDarray type and

2019 SQL:2019
operators)

Current standard[edit]
The standard is commonly denoted by the pattern: ISO/IEC 9075-n:yyyy Part n: title, or, as a
shortcut, ISO/IEC 9075.
ISO/IEC 9075 is complemented by ISO/IEC 13249: SQL Multimedia and Application
Packages (SQL/MM), which defines SQL-based interfaces and packages to widely spread
applications such as video, audio, and spatial data. Interested parties may purchase SQL
standards documents from ISO,[37] IEC or ANSI. A draft of SQL:2008 is freely available as
a zip archive.[38]
Anatomy of SQL Standard[edit]
The SQL standard is divided into 10 parts, but with gaps in the numbering due to the withdrawal
of outdated parts.

 ISO/IEC 9075-1:2016 Part 1: Framework (SQL/Framework). It provides logical concepts. [39]

 ISO/IEC 9075-2:2016 Part 2: Foundation (SQL/Foundation). It contains the most central
elements of the language and consists of both mandatory and optional features.

 ISO/IEC 9075-3:2016 Part 3: Call-Level Interface (SQL/CLI). It defines interfacing components

(structures, procedures, variable bindings) that can be used to execute SQL statements from
applications written in Ada, C respectively C++, COBOL, Fortran, MUMPS, Pascal or PL/I. (For
Java see part 10.) SQL/CLI is defined in such a way that SQL statements and SQL/CLI
procedure calls are treated as separate from the calling application's source code. Open
Database Connectivity is a well-known superset of SQL/CLI. This part of the standard consists
solely of mandatory features.

 ISO/IEC 9075-4:2016 Part 4: Persistent stored modules (SQL/PSM). It standardizes

procedural extensions for SQL, including flow of control, condition handling, statement
condition signals and resignals, cursors and local variables, and assignment of expressions to
variables and parameters. In addition, SQL/PSM formalizes declaration and maintenance of
persistent database language routines (e.g., "stored procedures"). This part of the standard
consists solely of optional features.

 ISO/IEC 9075-9:2016 Part 9: Management of External Data (SQL/MED). It provides

extensions to SQL that define foreign-data wrappers and datalink types to allow SQL to
manage external data. External data is data that is accessible to, but not managed by, an
SQL-based DBMS. This part of the standard consists solely of optional features.
  ISO/IEC 9075-10:2016 Part 10: Object language bindings (SQL/OLB). It defines the syntax
and semantics of SQLJ, which is SQL embedded in Java (see also part 3). The standard also
describes mechanisms to ensure binary portability of SQLJ applications, and specifies various
Java packages and their contained classes. This part of the standard consists solely
of optional features. Unlike SQL/OLB JDBC defines an API and is not part of the SQL
standard.[citation needed]

 ISO/IEC 9075-11:2016 Part 11: Information and definition schemas (SQL/Schemata). It

defines the Information Schema and Definition Schema, providing a common set of tools to
make SQL databases and objects self-describing. These tools include the SQL object
identifier, structure and integrity constraints, security and authorization specifications, features
and packages of ISO/IEC 9075, support of features provided by SQL-based DBMS
implementations, SQL-based DBMS implementation information and sizing items, and the
values supported by the DBMS implementations.[40] This part of the standard contains
both mandatory and optional features.

 ISO/IEC 9075-13:2016 Part 13: SQL Routines and types using the Java TM programming
language (SQL/JRT). It specifies the ability to invoke static Java methods as routines from
within SQL applications ('Java-in-the-database'). It also calls for the ability to use Java classes
as SQL structured user-defined types. This part of the standard consists solely
of optional features.

 ISO/IEC 9075-14:2016 Part 14: XML-Related Specifications (SQL/XML). It specifies SQL-

based extensions for using XML in conjunction with SQL. The XML data type is introduced, as
well as several routines, functions, and XML-to-SQL data type mappings to support
manipulation and storage of XML in an SQL database. [33] This part of the standard consists
solely of optional features.[citation needed]

 ISO/IEC 9075-15:2019 Part 15: Multi-dimensional arrays (SQL/MDA). It specifies a

multidimensional array type (MDarray) for SQL, along with operations on MDarrays, MDarray
slices, MDarray cells, and related features. This part of the standard consists solely
of optional features.

Extensions to the ISO/IEC Standard[edit]

ISO/IEC 9075 is complemented by ISO/IEC 13249 SQL Multimedia and Application Packages.
This closely related but separate standard is developed by the same committee. It defines
interfaces and packages based on SQL. The aim is a unified access to typical database
applications like text, pictures, data mining or spatial data.

 ISO/IEC 13249-1:2016 Part 1: Framework

 ISO/IEC 13249-2:2003 Part 2: Full-Text

 ISO/IEC 13249-3:2016 Part 3: Spatial

 ISO/IEC 13249-5:2003 Part 5: Still image

 ISO/IEC 13249-6:2006 Part 6: Data mining

 ISO/IEC 13249-7:2013 Part 7: History

 ISO/IEC 13249-8:xxxx Part 8: Metadata Registry Access MRA (work in progress)

Technical reports[edit]
ISO/IEC 9075 is also accompanied by a series of Technical Reports, published as ISO/IEC TR
19075. These Technical Reports explain the justification for and usage of some features of SQL,
giving examples where appropriate. The Technical Reports are non-normative; if there is any
discrepancy from 9075, the text in 9075 holds. Currently available 19075 Technical Reports are:

 ISO/IEC TR 19075-1:2011 Part 1: XQuery Regular Expression Support in SQL

 ISO/IEC TR 19075-2:2015 Part 2: SQL Support for Time-Related Information
 ISO/IEC TR 19075-3:2015 Part 3: SQL Embedded in Programs using the Java programming
language

 ISO/IEC TR 19075-4:2015 Part 4: SQL with Routines and types using the Java programming
language

 ISO/IEC TR 19075-5:2016 Part 5: Row Pattern Recognition in SQL

 ISO/IEC TR 19075-6:2017 Part 6: SQL support for JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)

 ISO/IEC TR 19