Programming Oracle® Triggers and Stored Procedures, Third Edition

1.2. SQL

SQL means something very specific, whereas the term database has broad meaning and interpretation in everyday conversation. This section elaborates on the SQL language as a standard. Topics include SQL implementation, embedded SQL, Direct SQL, and SQL*Plus as an implementation of Direct SQL.

1.2.1. ANSI Standard

SQL is a language currently defined in an ANSI standard (the previous section discussed the history of SQL as it passed from IBM to ANSI). If you are writing an Oracle application that uses SQL, then you are coding SQL statements whose syntax complies with ANSI-X3.135-1999, “Database Language SQL.”

This ANSI standard is available to the public through the ANSI Web store. You can visit the site, http://webstore.ansi.org/ansidocstore/ ...