Re: feature & performance comparison

In article <3b2c2bd7.247500677_at_news.compuserve.com>, 72322.nospam.1016_at_compuserve.com says...
>
>How about the SQL-92 standard for joins? We have 8i at work and have
>to put them in the WHERE clause and indicate outer joins with a (+).
>

you do understand that there are 4 levels to sql92

o entry level
o transitional
o intermediate
o full

No vendor, not a single one, has certified ABOVE entry level.

Most all have certified at entry level.

Every vendor, every one, has features from above entry level. For example -- derived tables in the from clause (we call them inline views) have been in Oracle since v7.1. They are part of FULL SQL-92. They provide a functionality not available by any prior means.

Outer join syntax (pure syntactical feature) is part of transitional. There existed a way to do an outer join so no new functionality was to be gained by adding it.

9i did add it.

If you want to look at sql-92 and use that as a basis for creating "database independent sql", you must stay at entry level (which is just a little more feature rich then sql-89). The original SQL spec was a pamphlet. SQL-89 with RI added just a few pages. The SQL-92 spec is huge. It is not probable that any vendor will comply with this specificiation totally.

You will find bits and pieces of every database that do and do not comply with the various levels of sql-92 above entry level. Unfortunately, most books on sql92 just talk to the spec as if it were one big spec. it's really 4 in 1.

Oracle attempts to comply with standards whenever and where ever possible.

>On Tue, 12 Jun 2001 02:59:21 GMT, Mark Townsend
><markbtownsend_at_home.com> wrote:
>
>> I have
>>yet to see Oracle not follow a standard when one is available.
>>
>

--
Thomas Kyte (tkyte@us.oracle.com)             http://asktom.oracle.com/ 
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