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Codd also introduced the use of the lowercase Greek omega (ω) symbol to represent null in database theory. In SQL, NULL is a reserved word used to identify this marker. A null should not be confused with a value of 0. A null indicates a lack of a value, which is not the same as a zero value.
Null (SQL) (or NULL), a special marker and keyword in SQL indicating that something has no value; Null character, the zero-valued ASCII character, also designated by NUL, often used as a terminator, separator or filler. This symbol has no visual representation. Null device, a virtual file that discards data written to it, on Unix systems /dev/null
An identifier may not be equal to a reserved keyword, unless it is a delimited identifier. Delimited identifiers means identifiers enclosed in double quotation marks. They can contain characters normally not supported in SQL identifiers, and they can be identical to a reserved word, e.g. a column named YEAR is specified as "YEAR".
Conversely, an inner join can result in disastrously slow performance or even a server crash when used in a large volume query in combination with database functions in an SQL Where clause. [2] [3] [4] A function in an SQL Where clause can result in the database ignoring relatively compact table indexes. The database may read and inner join the ...
SQL was initially developed at IBM by Donald D. Chamberlin and Raymond F. Boyce after learning about the relational model from Edgar F. Codd [12] in the early 1970s. [13] This version, initially called SEQUEL (Structured English Query Language), was designed to manipulate and retrieve data stored in IBM's original quasirelational database management system, System R, which a group at IBM San ...
The SQL:1999 standard introduced a BOOLEAN data type as an optional feature (T031). When restricted by a NOT NULL constraint, a SQL BOOLEAN behaves like Booleans in other languages, which can store only TRUE and FALSE values. However, if it is nullable, which is the default like all other SQL data types, it can have the special null value also.
Standard SQL uses the same operators as BASIC, while many databases allow != in addition to <> from the standard. SQL follows strict boolean algebra, i.e. doesn't use short-circuit evaluation, which is common to most languages below. E.g. PHP has it, but otherwise it has these same two operators defined as aliases, like many SQL databases.
In SQL, wildcard characters can be used in LIKE expressions; the percent sign % matches zero or more characters, and underscore _ a single character. Transact-SQL also supports square brackets ([and ]) to list sets and ranges of characters to match, a leading caret ^ negates the set and matches only a character not within the list.