Chapter 6. Introducing SQL

In This Chapter

Understanding Data Sources 76

Creating a Data Source 77

Preparing to Write SQL Queries 81

Creating Queries 82

Sorting Query Results 84

Filtering Data 85

SQL—pronounced “sequel" or “S-Q-L”—is an acronym for Structured Query Language, a language you use to access and manipulate data in a relational database. It was designed to be easy to learn and extremely powerful, and its mass acceptance by many database vendors proves that it has succeeded in both.

In 1970, Dr. E. F. Codd, the man called the father of the relational database, described a universal language for data access. In 1974, engineers at IBM’s San Jose Research Center created the Structured English Query Language, or SEQUEL, built on Codd’s ideas. ...

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