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SQL:1999 & SQL:2003. Objektrelationales SQL, SQLJ & SQL/XML. (German) Zbl 1026.68046

Heidelberg: dpunkt.verlag. xiii, 478 S. (2003).
The central topic of this book is the database standard SQL:1999 and its successor SQL:2003. It presents the object-relational concepts of data modelling and language constructs and includes JDBC, SQLJ and SQL/XML. In every case the standards are compared with the actually implemented dialects of SQL in Oracle9i Release 2, IBM DB2 V8.1, IBM Informix 9.3.1 and PostgreSQL 7.3.
The book starts with a very short description of the basic concepts of object-orientation and SQL, which the reader surely must supplement with the study of some of the references. In the sequel the chapters come in pairs, the first one of each pair describing some part of the standard and the second one comparing the standard with the named dialects. The topics treated are DDL (including extensions for multimedia), queries, updates and interfaces to Java. Only the last chapter on SQL/XML is unpaired. Although there are several code examples throughout the book, the text can serve much better as a reference than as a tutorial. The author tries hard to include as many SQL-commmands and constructs as possible and to illustrate their fine points, but the size of the book being finite some passages are unavoidably rather abstract. Especially valuable is the detailed description of which constructs are implemented in the dialects and how they differ from the standard, always completed by a summary and critical discussion. The chapters on interfaces to Java are the most extensive ones. The author gives many examples which thoroughly introduce into the diverse facets of imbedding SQL into Java and the connection between types in SQL and classes in Java.
The index not only completely lists every SQL keyword, but besides it does so for every dialect separately which proves to be very useful. As usual supplementary material is available online, and here are 10 valuable documents with exercises which very effectively show how to put SQL into action. Solutions are given using DB2 (so implicitely the reader is challenged to give solutions in other dialects) and their possible deficiencies are discussed.
The book is highly recommendable for those who need a nearly complete overview of the features of SQL and/or have to choose a dialect.

MSC:

68P15 Database theory
68N15 Theory of programming languages
68-01 Introductory exposition (textbooks, tutorial papers, etc.) pertaining to computer science
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