ANSI SQL Manual

Can anyone recommend a good ANSI SQL reference manual?

I don't necessary mean a tutorial but a proper reference document to lookup when you need either a basic or more in-depth explanation or example.

Currently I am using W3Schools SQL Tutorial and SQL Tutorial which are ok, but I don't find them "deep" enough.

Of course, each major RDBMS producer will have some sort of reference manuals targeting their own product, but they tend to be biased and sometime will use proprietary extensions.

EDITED: The aim of the question was to focus on the things database engines have in common i.e. the SQL roots. But understanding the differences can also be a positive thing - this is quite interesting.

Solution 1:

Here's the ‘Second Informal Review Draft’ of SQL:1992, which seems to have been accurate enough for everything I've looked up. 1992 covers most of the stuff routinely used across DBMSs.

Solution 2:

SQL isn't like C or Java, where there is a standard for the language, and then a number of companies and organizations are implementing the language as best they can, following the standard.

Instead, the major databases came before the SQL standard, and the standard is a sort of compromise where every database vendor wanted to get their particular dialect and features in the standard.

Therefore, there is much more variety between databases than between typical programming language compilers, and to use a database, you really need to know that particular SQL dialect.

Having said that, I've got Gultzan and Peltzer's SQL-99 Complete, Really here in my bookshelf. It is a good book if you need to know what the standard really contains. (And yes, there is a newer version since SQL-99, but noone seems to care.)

EDIT: Actually, there is not just one newer version since SQL-99, but three: SQL:2003, SQL:2006, and SQL:2008. And still noone seems to care. Actually, many don't even care about SQL-99, so SQL-92 is still, in a way, "the standard".

Solution 3:

ANSI documents can all be purchased from -- you guessed it -- ANSI.

http://webstore.ansi.org/

Solution 4:

The main problem with an ANSI SQL reference manual is that you can't find a DB which implements it. And when it does, then you'll find that ANSI SQL can't solve some of the daily problems. Which is why all professional databases define extensions.

So at work, you'll need a reference manual for the specific version of the database which you use.