Dina Hess wrote:
>
> Actually, any attempt to apply the word "standard" to the many flavors of SQL
>probably *is* questionable. :)
Not at all. There have been official SQL standards since 1987. You seem
to confuse the lack of conforming implementations with the absence of a
standard.
> But I'm unfamiliar with SQL:1999. A quick check on google seems to indicate this is
>an attempt to provide a SQL standard. Care to comment further on that?
SQL:1999 is the short name for ISO/IEC 9075:1999. That is the fourth
version of the SQL standard, after SQL-87, SQL-89 (a.k.a. SQL1) and
SQL-92 (a.k.a. SQL2). SQL:1999 is sometimes refered to as SQL3. (Never
mind the difference in notation/numbering, they all have reasons that
are mostly due to who gets to write the standard.)
Part 2 of the standard, Foundation (SQL/Foundation), sets the standards
for what is commonly termed SQL. Amongst other it defines EXTRACT (6.17)
with the syntax:
<extract expression> ::=
EXTRACT <left paren> <extract field>
FROM <extract source> <right paren>
<extract field> is year, month, day, hour etc.
<extract source> is a date/time/interval.
I don't have any versions of the standard older as SQL-92, but EXTRACT
was in it then. So in the case of SQL Server's Transact-SQL, for 10
years they have neglected to implement the functionality by aliassing
EXTRACT to the Year() and Month() functions which apparently are
present. BTW, MONTH and YEAR are both reserved words in SQL:1999 (5.2).
Maybe they need some more customers to express their dissatisfaction
with the lack of standards compliance which hinders their code portability.
The SQL standard is available from your national standards body or
libraries. If you are good at online searching and know the right
keywords you might find a free copy online on some Russian server.
Jochem
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=4
Subscription:
http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=4
FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq
Get the mailserver that powers this list at http://www.coolfusion.com
