SQL in a Nutshell A Desktop Quick Reference With Early Release ebooks, you get books in their earliest form—the author’s raw and unedited content as they write—so you can take advantage of these technologies long before the official release of these titles. Kevin Kline, Regina O. Obe, and Leo S. Hsu SQL in a Nutshell by Kevin Kline, Regina O. Obe, and Leo S. Hsu Copyright © 2021 O’Reilly Media. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472. O’Reilly books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. Online editions are also available for most titles (http://oreilly.com). For more information, contact our corporate/institutional sales department: 800-998-9938 or corporate@oreilly.com. Acquisitions Editor: Andy Kwan Development Editor: Rita Fernando Production Editor: Beth Kelly Interior Designer: David Futato Cover Designer: Karen Montgomery Illustrator: Rebecca Demarest November 2021: Fourth Edition Revision History for the Early Release 2021-07-22: First Release See http://oreilly.com/catalog/errata.csp?isbn=9781492088868 for release details. The O’Reilly logo is a registered trademark of O’Reilly Media, Inc. SQL in a Nutshell, the cover image, and related trade dress are trademarks of O’Reilly Media, Inc. The views expressed in this work are those of the authors, and do not represent the publisher’s views. While the publisher and the authors have used good faith efforts to ensure that the information and instructions contained in this work are accurate, the publisher and the authors disclaim all responsibility for errors or omissions, including without limitation responsibility for damages resulting from the use of or reliance on this work. Use of the information and instructions contained in this work is at your own risk. If any code samples or other technology this work contains or describes is subject to open source licenses or the intellectual property rights of others, it is your responsibility to ensure that your use thereof complies with such licenses and/or rights. 978-1-492-08879-0 [FILL IN] Chapter 1. SQL History and Implementations A NOTE FOR EARLY RELEASE READERS With Early Release ebooks, you get books in their earliest form—the author’s raw and unedited content as they write—so you can take advantage of these technologies long before the official release of these titles. This will be the 1st chapter of the final book. If you have comments about how we might improve the content and/or examples in this book, or if you notice missing material within this chapter, please reach out to the editor at rfernando@oreilly.com. In the early 1970s, the seminal work of IBM research fellow Dr. E. F. Codd led to the development of a relational data model product called SEQUEL, or Structured English Query Language. SEQUEL ultimately became SQL, or Structured Query Language. IBM, along with other relational database vendors, wanted a standardized method for accessing and manipulating data in a relational database. Although IBM was the first to develop relational database theory, Oracle was first to market the technology. Over time, SQL proved popular enough in the marketplace to attract the attention of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in cooperation with the International Standards Organization (ISO), which released standards for SQL in 1986, 1989, 1992, 1999, 2003, 2006, 2011, and 2016. Since 1986, various competing languages have allowed developers to access and manipulate relational data. However, few were as easy to learn or as universally accepted as SQL. Programmers and administrators now have the benefit of being able to learn a single language that, with minor adjustments, is applicable to a wide variety of database platforms, applications, and products.