SQL-92

This article is about SQL-92, the third revision of the SQL standard. For more information about SQL, see the main SQL article.

SQL-92 was the third revision of the SQL database query language. Unlike SQL-89, it was a major revision of the standard. For all but a few minor incompatibilities, the SQL-89 standard is forward compatible with SQL-92.

Later revisions of the standard include SQL:1999 (SQL3), SQL:2003, SQL:2008, and SQL:2011.

New Features

• New data types defined: DATE, TIME, TIMESTAMP, INTERVAL, BIT string, VARCHAR strings, and NATIONAL CHARACTER strings.
• Support for additional character sets beyond the base requirement for representing SQL statements.
• New scalar operations such as string concatenation, date and time mathematics, and conditional statements.
• New set operations such as UNION JOIN, NATURAL JOIN, set differences, and set intersections.
• Support for alterations of schema definitions via ALTER and DROP.
• Bindings for C, Ada, and MUMPS.
• New features for user privileges.
• New integrity-checking functionality such as within a CHECK constraint.
• New schema definitions for "Information".
• Dynamic execution of queries (as opposed to prepared).
• Better support for remote database access.
• Temporary tables.
• Transaction isolation levels.
• New operations for changing data types on the fly via CAST.
• Scrolling cursors.
• Compatibility flagging for backwards and forwards compatibility with other SQL standards.
• Call Level Interface

External links

• The SQL-92 standard
• BNF Grammar for ISO/IEC 9075:1992 - Database Language SQL (SQL-92)