jnw@cs.strath.ac.uk (John Wilson) (11/21/90)
I have heard mention recently of SQL 2 and SQL 3. I suspect that SQL 1 is the 1986 ANSI standard and that 2 and 3 are subsequent revisions. Is anyone out there aware of these revisions? Is there published documentation describing the modified standards? John.
jfr@locus.com (Jon Rosen) (11/27/90)
In article <5124@baird.cs.strath.ac.uk> jnw@cs.strath.ac.uk (John Wilson) writes: >I have heard mention recently of SQL 2 and SQL 3. > >I suspect that SQL 1 is the 1986 ANSI standard and that 2 and 3 are >subsequent revisions. > >Is anyone out there aware of these revisions? Is there published >documentation describing the modified standards? > >John. This gets really complicated but try to follow it if you can... ANSI SQL is the adopted standard for the US, as well as by ISO (international standards organization) and FIPS (the federales)... ANSI SQL is a wimp (i.e., weak immature miserable and puny, not windows, icons, mouse pointing) standard which copped to much of IBM did in DB2 and left out major areas such as DROP <anything>, indexes (indices if you prefer), referential integrity, etc. The Integrity Enhancement Feature (i.e., referential intgerity) was defined as an extension to ANSI SQL but I do not believe that it has been fully adopted (I may be wrong on this point)... SQL2 has been proposed as a draft standard. It adds DOMAINs, full referential constraints including general ASSERTIONs, DROP <anything>, FETCH orientation (i.e., fetch last or previous, as well as next), embedded SQL definitions, outer joins (actually any join can be expressed with SQL 2), DATETIME, and some other stuff. SQL3 is integrated into the SQL 2 proposal with a bunch of *** This is only for SQL 3 *** type remarks... SQL 3 includes triggers and a lot of extensions in the manipulation language (I think joined updates are included but the document is pretty hard to decipher). SQL3 is also only a proposal. Along with all of this, there are two ISO standards being considered for international use and the SQL2/3 document merges all of this into one big mish mash. I think SQL2 and SQL3 are quite a long way off from reality. Even if a consensus develops (and it is certainly like designing a camel by committee), approving the draft standard and then having vendors respond will take a long time. Remember that ANSI SQL was in fact a reduction of practice to definition. SQL2/3 will require building new practice out of a definition. This is much harder to accomplish. Jon Rosen
perk@informix.com (Paul Perkovic) (12/22/90)
In an article from November jnw@cs.strath.ac.uk (John Wilson) writes: >I have heard mention recently of SQL 2 and SQL 3. > >I suspect that SQL 1 is the 1986 ANSI standard and that 2 and 3 are >subsequent revisions. > >Is anyone out there aware of these revisions? Is there published >documentation describing the modified standards? > >John. In the standards community, SQL-1 or SQL-1989 refers to ISO 9075:1989 (ANS X3.135-1989), Database Language SQL with Integrity Enhancement. SQL-2 is a proposed replacement standard, Extended Database Language SQL, which has just completed an ISO Committee Draft ballot; national body comments will be resolved at an Editing Meeting in mid-January, 1991. Internationally, the Committee Draft document dated July, 1990, carries the number ISO/IEC JTC1/SC21 N5215. You should be able to obtain a copy through your national body (British Standards Institute). Within the United States, a similar document (containing both the ISO and ANSI proposed specifications, allowing comparison between the two) is currently out for the ANSI Public Review process, which began November 2, 1990, and extends through March 1, 1991. Copies of this draft standard are available from Global Engineering Documents, Inc., 2805 McGaw Avenue, Irvine, CA 92714 (telephone 1-800-854-7179). U.S. single copy price is $78.00; international orders are $98.50. To quote from the ANSI press release (fixing a few typos): The draft standard includes provisions for schema manipulation, dynamic SQL, exception handling with diagnostics, and data administration, as well as substantial enhancements for data definition and data manipulation. New data types include DATE, TIME, TIMESTAMP, and BITSTRING, together with a new facility for domain definition. New operators include string manipulation, a case expression, outer join, union join, set operations, cast expressions for converting data types, and derived tables in the FROM clause. New data definition capabilities include cascaded effects for referential integrity, variable length strings, character set collation, and recognition of new international character string requirements. The language is specified in three levels, including an Entry Level that is essentially identical to the SQL-1989 standard, an Intermediate Level including about half of the new facilities, and a Full Level comprising the complete specification. A new "flagger requirement" will assist users in producing portable code for access to remote databases at different levels. A database will be self-describing in the sense that all schema definitions are represented through common catalog tables, called the Information Schema, which can be viewed through the proper access control filters for each user. ANSI Technical Committee X3H2, which has the U.S. development responsibility for this standard, includes representatives of vendors, government, commercial users, user groups, and academics among its 50-person membership. The purpose of a Public Review is to ensure the widest possible consensus on the new features and their technical specification before the standard is adopted. If you enjoy reading standards documents and want to have some influence on the direction in which SQL is going, now is the time to review the document and get your Public Review comments submitted. Send your comments to: Send a copy to: X3 Secretariat American National Standards Institute Attn: Lynn Barra Attn: BSR Center 311 First Street NW, Suite 500 1430 Broadway Washington, DC 20001-2178 New York, NY 10018 Under the current timetable, the SQL-2 proposal could become an ANSI and ISO standard by 1992. If you don't like some of the new features, or think that some essential features have been omitted, NOW is the time to act -- otherwise, it will be too late. SQL-3 adds even more features, which are mostly in the wishful thinking stage at this point. / perk perk@informix.com ...{pyramid|uunet}!infmx!perk Paul Perkovic / Standards Manager Informix Software, Inc. (415) 926-6821 4100 Bohannon Dr./ Menlo Park, CA 94025
krishnan@hermes.cs.uh.edu (Parameshwaran Krishnan) (04/16/91)
I am interested in checking out on the most recent SQL standard specs. Can anybody direct me to the right source or person ? Please email all replies to me. Thanks -- Krishnan ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Krishnan@uh.edu (Internet, BITNET) Krishnan@UHOU (Old Bitnet style mailers)