SQL Overview

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An Overview of the Structured Query Language (SQL)

Structured Query Language (SQL) is a database language consisting of English-like statements you can use to perform database operations. Both the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and IBM have defined standards for SQL. (The IBM standard is the Systems Application Architecture [SAA].) The Pervasive.SQL product implements most of the features of both ANSI SQL and IBM SAA SQL and provides additional extensions that neither standard specifies.

Pervasive.SQL allows you to create different types of SQL statements. The following table lists the types of SQL statements you can create and the tasks you can accomplish using each type of statement:

 
Table 1-1 SQL Statement Types and Related Tasks

SQL Statement Type	Tasks
Data Definition	Create, modify, and delete tables. Create and delete indexes. Create and delete stored SQL procedures. Create and delete triggers.
Data Manipulation	Retrieve, insert, update, and delete data in tables. Define transactions. Define and delete views. Execute stored SQL procedures. Execute triggers.
Data Control	Enable and disable security for a dictionary. Create and delete users and groups. Grant and revoke table access rights.

The rest of this chapter briefly describes the SQL statements used in each statement category. For detailed information about each statement, refer to SQL Syntax Reference .

The following are the statement category overview sections found in this chapter:

• Data Definition Statements
• Data Manipulation Statements
• Data Control Statements
• Database Names