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SQL (Structured Query Language) is the world's most widely used database query language. Originally known as SEQUEL, this language has been used by IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, and other major vendors of database software. In 1987, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) adopted this language as an international standard and updated the standard in 1992, 1999, and 2003. SQL is the unifying standard around which the $15 billion relational database industry has developed, and it provides the main user interface for DB2®, a family of relational database products offered by IBM.
The basic elements of the SEQUEL query language were first published in 1974 by Don Chamberlin and Ray Boyce at the ACM–SIGFIDET Workshop on Data Description. Following this publication, the original SEQUEL query syntax was extended to encompass additional functionality, including view definition, integrity assertions, and access control.
The 1976 IBM Journal paper, which is very highly cited, was the first publication to describe the full functionality of the language as we know it today. Although the name of the language was later shortened to SQL, the IBM paper is the earliest and most complete description of the language that evolved into the unifying standard of the relational-database industry.
SQL was first implemented in System R, a seminal database system built at the IBM San Jose Research facility in the 1970s. System R is discussed further in the IBM Systems Journal paper “System R: An architectural overview” by M. W. Blasgen et al. (Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 41-62, 1981).
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