Alvaro - SQL for Beginners

In this chapter you will learn a brief background on how and why SQL came into existence. Gaining knowledge on the history of this computer language will help you understand its importance to most IT professionals who focus on the field of data manipulation. You will also have an idea on how to maximize the potentials of SQL in the ever-changing world of Information Technology.

The current trend in most businesses today is to invest in technology that will gather data in the most efficient and effective way. However, gathering information is only the start of the extensive process of data manipulation. Companies, especially multi-national ones, require experts who possess the skills of analyzing, presenting, managing and storing data. In other words, they need to use computer programs that will transform raw company data to useful information. Now, thanks to Structured Query Language , or simply SQL , that brought about such transformation in accessing and manipulating data in a very meaningful way.

History of SQL

Pronounced as ees-que-ell or seeqwl , SQL is a computer language initially invented by an American multinational technology and consulting company known as IBM (International Business Machines Corporation) way back 1970s using Dr. E. F. Codds paper on A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks for the prototype design. It was originally called SEQUEL (Structured English QUEry Language) that handled queries on the collection and organization of data - or simply known as a database. More features were added to the computer software to improve its performance, like building and managing database security, among others. When IBM researchers learned that there is another company that had the same Sequel trademark, they renamed it to S-Q-L (presently expanded as Structured Query Language ).

Since it was first released to the public, SQL already had many versions. In 1979, Relational Software, Incorporated (which later became the Oracle Corporation) released ORACLE , the first SQL product. Now, as the demand for computers that manage data has increased, the more SQL has become an industry standard in the field of Information Technology. Such formal standard is set and maintained by the International Standards Organization , or simply known as ISO . It was on 1986, based on IBMs implementation, that SQL has been recognized as the standard language in database communication. The following year, ISO accepted ANSI SQL as the international standard. ANSI stands for American National Standards Institute , which is an organization that approves certain standards in various US industries. Many revisions of the standards followed, such as in 1992 (SQL-92) and in 1999 (SQL-99). The latest one is now called SQL-2011, which was officially released in December 2011.

Uses of SQL

The corporate world is now shifting from merely producing products and providing services to investing in digital technologies that handle vast amounts of data, to be transformed to meaningful pieces of information that will generate more profitable income for the company. This is the primary objective of SQL to access and manipulate data that will further lead to business insights. This flexible computer language has been the most widely used communication tool in handling databases (specifically relational databases that will be further discussed in Chapter 3 of this book).

Try to imagine that you are going to a foreign country for a vacation. You may need to learn that countrys language to find your way around as you explore the new place. When you try ask someone for directions, who is local to that place and only speaks the countrys language, then surely you will have a hard time understanding him. In this scenario, the foreign land will be your database in which you need to seek information while SQL is the language that you will use to get what you need from the database.