SQL—A Query Language

Most DBI drivers require applications to use a dialect of SQL (Structured Query Language) to interact with the database engine. The following URLs provide useful information and further links about SQL:

http://www.altavista.com/query?q=sql+tutorial

http://www.jcc.com/sql_stnd.html

http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~shadow/sql.html

The DBI itself does not mandate or require any particular language to be used; it is language-independent. In ODBC terms, the DBI is in “pass-thru” mode, although individual drivers might not be. The only requirement is that queries and other statements must be expressed as a single string of characters passed as the first argument to the prepare or do methods.

For an interesting diversion on the real history of RDBMS and SQL, from the people who made it happen, see:

http://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/SRC/technical-notes/SRC-1997-018-html/sqlr95.html

Follow the “And the rest” and “Intergalactic dataspeak” links for the SQL history.