Structured Query Language (SQL) [1] has been an ANSI standard since 1986.
The original proposal of SQL was put forward in 1976 as SEQUEL 2[2] and subsequently
renamed [3] as SQL. It then underwent critical human-factors analyses{
standardization following an entire decade later. And, some twenty-ve years
later, SQL has become the de facto standard database query language whose
mere mention is virtually synonymous with relational database. Certainly one
aspect of SQL's success has been the success of the relational model, introduced
ve years earlier by Codd[4]. Until that time, the state of aairs of database was in disarray: too many platforms, models (the most common being network
and hierarchical), and most problematic, query languages that depended directly
upon the architecture of the model. The relational model freed the user from
having to
avigate" their models{data independence was achieved. The significance
of this cannot be over emphasized. For the rst time, a user was freed