Version 4.11
By James Hoffman
This page is a tutorial of the Structured Query Language (also known as SQL) and is a pioneering effort on the World Wide Web, as this is the first comprehensive SQL tutorial available on the Internet. SQL allows users to access data in relational database management systems, such as Oracle, Sybase, Informix, Microsoft SQL Server, Access, and others, by allowing users to describe the data the user wishes to see. SQL also allows users to define the data in a database, and manipulate that data.
This page will describe how to use SQL, and give examples. The SQL used in this document is "ANSI", or standard SQL, and no SQL features of specific database management systems will be discussed until the "Nonstandard SQL" section. It is recommended that you print this page, so that you can easily refer back to previous examples.