History and Standards of SQL
SQL has evolved over decades through standardization by ANSI (American National Standards Institute) and ISO (International Organization for Standardization). Each standard version introduced new features and improvements to the language.
- SQL-86 (SQL-87): The first formal SQL standard released by ANSI in 1986 and ISO in 1987.
- SQL-89: Minor revisions and clarifications added to the original standard.
- SQL-92 (SQL2): A major update that added more robust syntax and features like new data types, constraints (CHECK), outer joins, set operations (UNION, INTERSECT), and better schema management.
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SQL:1999 (SQL3): Introduced object-relational features like user-defined types, recursive queries (WITH), triggers, and support for procedural code with
BEGIN...ENDblocks. - SQL:2003: Added XML support, window functions (OVER, PARTITION BY), and the MERGE statement.
- SQL:2006: Focused on XML integration and publishing XML data from SQL queries.
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SQL:2008: Minor improvements and standardization of previously optional features like
TRUNCATE, and enhanced MERGE behavior. - SQL:2011: Introduced support for temporal (time-based) tables, allowing for time-travel queries using SYSTEM_TIME and application time.
- SQL:2016 and later: Continued improvements including JSON support, row pattern recognition, and polymorphic table functions.


