Unit 1 Research Assignment 1: Exploring Programming Language
Structured Query Language (SQL) is a specialized language for updating, deleting, and requesting information from databases. SQL is an ANSI and ISO standard, and is the de facto database query language. A variety of established database products support SQL, including products from Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server. It is widely used in both industry and academia, often for enormous, complex datbases. (Base, 2013). SQL was developed in the 1970’s by IBM to initially manipulate and retrieve data in IBM system R. The SQL language was standardized in 1986 by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI); however, later releases were released as International Organization Standardization (ISO) standards. (Inc., 2013) Although IBM authored SQL, the first SQL implementation was provided by Oracle Corporation (then called Relational Software Inc.). Early commercial implementations were concentrated on midsized UNIX-based DBMSs, such as Oracle, Ingres, and Informix. IBM followed in 1981 with SQL/DS, the forerunner to DB2, which debuted in 1983. (Unknown, 2010) ANSI published the first SQL standard (SQL-86) in 1986. An international version of the standard issued by ISO appeared in 1987. A significant update to SQL-86 was released in 1989 (SQL-89). Virtually, all relational DBMSs that you encounter today support most of the 1986 standard. (Unknown, 2010) In 1992, the standard was revised again (SQL-92), adding more capabilities to the language. Because SQL-92 was s superset of SQL-89, older database application programs ran under the new standard with minimal modifications. In fact, until October 1996, DBMS vendors could submit their products to NIST (National Institute for Standards and Technology) for verification of SQL standard compliance. The testing and certification process provided significant