SQL FAQ: SQL Standard

What is SQL?

SQL, Structured Query Language, is a database query language that was adopted as an industry standard in 1986.

What is SQL2?

A major revision to the SQL standard was completed in 1992, called SQL2. Helpful references include:
Melton, Jim and Alan R. Simon, Understanding the New SQL: A Complete Guide, San Mateo, CA., Morgan Kaufmann Publishers (1993).

Date, C. J. and Hugh Darwen, A Guide to The SQL Standard, Third Edition, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc. (1993).

What is SQL3?

Among other enhancements, SQL3 supports objects. SQL3 probably won't be complete until 1998; however, Illustra already implements many SQL3 features. More information about SQL3 is available via anonymous ftp to speckle.ncsl.nist.gov:/isowg3.

What are the SQL reserved words?

I grep'd the following list out of the sql docs available via anonymous ftp to speckle.ncsl.nist.gov:/isowg3. SQL3 words are not set in stone, but you'd do well to avoid them. From sql1992.txt: AFTER, ALIAS, ASYNC, BEFORE, BOOLEAN, BREADTH, COMPLETION, CALL, CYCLE, DATA, DEPTH, DICTIONARY, EACH, ELSEIF, EQUALS, GENERAL, IF, IGNORE, LEAVE, LESS, LIMIT, LOOP, MODIFY, NEW, NONE, OBJECT, OFF, OID, OLD, OPERATION, OPERATORS, OTHERS, PARAMETERS, PENDANT, PREORDER, PRIVATE, PROTECTED, RECURSIVE, REF, REFERENCING, REPLACE, RESIGNAL, RETURN, RETURNS, ROLE, ROUTINE, ROW, SAVEPOINT, SEARCH, SENSITIVE, SEQUENCE, SIGNAL, SIMILAR, SQLEXCEPTION, SQLWARNING, STRUCTURE, TEST, THERE, TRIGGER, TYPE, UNDER, VARIABLE, VIRTUAL, VISIBLE, WAIT, WHILE, WITHOUT From sql1992.txt (Annex E): ABSOLUTE, ACTION, ADD, ALLOCATE, ALTER, ARE, ASSERTION, AT, BETWEEN, BIT, BIT_LENGTH, BOTH, CASCADE, CASCADED, CASE, CAST, CATALOG, CHAR_LENGTH, CHARACTER_LENGTH, COALESCE, COLLATE, COLLATION, COLUMN, CONNECT, CONNECTION, CONSTRAINT, CONSTRAINTS, CONVERT, CORRESPONDING, CROSS, CURRENT_DATE, CURRENT_TIME, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, CURRENT_USER, DATE, DAY, DEALLOCATE, DEFERRABLE, DEFERRED, DESCRIBE, DESCRIPTOR, DIAGNOSTICS, DISCONNECT, DOMAIN, DROP, ELSE, END-EXEC, EXCEPT, EXCEPTION, EXECUTE, EXTERNAL, EXTRACT, FALSE, FIRST, FULL, GET, GLOBAL, HOUR, IDENTITY, IMMEDIATE, INITIALLY, INNER, INPUT, INSENSITIVE, INTERSECT, INTERVAL, ISOLATION, JOIN, LAST, LEADING, LEFT, LEVEL, LOCAL, LOWER, MATCH, MINUTE, MONTH, NAMES, NATIONAL, NATURAL, NCHAR, NEXT, NO, NULLIF, OCTET_LENGTH, ONLY, OUTER, OUTPUT, OVERLAPS, PAD, PARTIAL, POSITION, PREPARE, PRESERVE, PRIOR, READ, RELATIVE, RESTRICT, REVOKE, RIGHT, ROWS, SCROLL, SECOND, SESSION, SESSION_USER, SIZE, SPACE, SQLSTATE, SUBSTRING, SYSTEM_USER, TEMPORARY, THEN, TIME, TIMESTAMP, TIMEZONE_HOUR, TIMEZONE_MINUTE, TRAILING, TRANSACTION, TRANSLATE, TRANSLATION, TRIM, TRUE, UNKNOWN, UPPER, USAGE, USING, VALUE, VARCHAR, VARYING, WHEN, WRITE, YEAR, ZONE From sql3part2.txt (Annex E) ACTION, ACTOR, AFTER, ALIAS, ASYNC, ATTRIBUTES, BEFORE, BOOLEAN, BREADTH, COMPLETION, CURRENT_PATH, CYCLE, DATA, DEPTH, DESTROY, DICTIONARY, EACH, ELEMENT, ELSEIF, EQUALS, FACTOR, GENERAL, HOLD, IGNORE, INSTEAD, LESS, LIMIT, LIST, MODIFY, NEW, NEW_TABLE, NO, NONE, OFF, OID, OLD, OLD_TABLE, OPERATION, OPERATOR, OPERATORS, PARAMETERS, PATH, PENDANT, POSTFIX, PREFIX, PREORDER, PRIVATE, PROTECTED, RECURSIVE, REFERENCING, REPLACE, ROLE, ROUTINE, ROW, SAVEPOINT, SEARCH, SENSITIVE, SEQUENCE, SESSION, SIMILAR, SPACE, SQLEXCEPTION, SQLWARNING, START, STATE, STRUCTURE, SYMBOL, TERM, TEST, THERE, TRIGGER, TYPE, UNDER, VARIABLE, VIRTUAL, VISIBLE, WAIT, WITHOUT sql3part4.txt (ANNEX E): CALL, DO, ELSEIF, EXCEPTION, IF, LEAVE, LOOP, OTHERS, RESIGNAL, RETURN, RETURNS, SIGNAL, TUPLE, WHILE
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Last modified 30-June-94 (Illustra Rev 2.0.12)

Jean Anderson (jta@postgres.berkeley.edu)