Masterminds of Programming

Chapter 10. SQL

Given a large collection of structured data, how can you provide an efficient way to gather, retrieve, and update information when you don’t know what kind of operations people will need? That’s the fundamental idea behind the relational model, invented by E. F. (Ted) Codd. SQL is the most visible implementation of the relational model—a declarative language where you describe what you want, not how to do it. Donald Chamberlin and Raymond Boyce developed SQL based on Codd’s ideas.

A Seminal Paper

How was SQL designed?

Don Chamberlin: In the early 1970s, integrated database systems were just beginning to be widely deployed. Trends in technology and economics were making it possible for the first time for businesses to view their data as a corporate resource to be shared among many applications. This new perspective on data created an opportunity for development of a new generation of data management technology.

In the 1970s, IBM’s mainstream database product was IMS, but in addition to the IMS development group, small research groups in several IBM locations were studying the database problem. Dr. E. F. (Ted) Codd was a leader of one of these groups, located at the IBM Research Laboratory in San Jose, California. Ray Boyce and I were members of another of small research group, located at IBM’s Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York. Ray and I were studying database query languages, trying to find ways to improve the languages that were in common usage ...