"Fill In The Blank"

We've been plannin' this weekend for a week and a half
Hope you ain't thinkin' that we're movin' too fast
This trip can be whatever you want it to
I'll pick where we go and you can pick what we do
We could
In the water, in the truck
On a blanket 'til the sun comes up
With each other on the river bank
Yeah I'll leave it up to you, baby fill in the blank
I know a little spot thirty miles outta town
We can do what we want, won't be nobody around
I love hanging with your friends and your family too
But there's some things that only two people should do
We could
In the water, in the truck
On a blanket 'til the sun comes up
With each other on the river bank
Yeah I'll leave it up to you, baby fill in the blank
We could
In the water, in the truck
On a blanket 'til the sun comes up
With each other on the river bank
Yeah I'll leave it up to you, baby
We could
To some music real slow
'Til we can't no more
If the clouds roll in we could, in the rain
Yeah I'll leave it up to you, baby fill in the blank
Yeah the options are endless, baby fill in the blank
Oh Yeah

SQL is the internationally recognized standard language for dealing with data in relational databases. Developed by IBM, SQL became an international standard in 1986. The standard was updated in 1989, 1992, 1999, 2003, and 2008. It continues to evolve and gain capability.

Database vendors continually update their products to incorporate the new features of the ISO/IEC standard. (For the curious out there, ISO is the International Organization for Standardization, and IEC is the International Electronically Commission.)

SQL isn’t a general-purpose language, such as C++ or Java. Instead, it’s strictly designed to deal with data in relational databases. With SQL, you can carry out all the following tasks:

✦ Create a database, including all tables and relationships
✦ Fill database tables with data
✦ Change the data in database tables
✦ Delete data from database tables
✦ Retrieve specific information from database tables
✦ Grant and revoke access to database tables
✦ Protect database tables from corruption due to access conflicts or user mistakes.

This blog isn’t just about SQL; it’s also about how SQL fits into the process of creating and maintaining databases and database applications. In this blog, I cover how SQL fits into the larger world of application development and how it handles data coming in from other computers, which may be on the other side of the world or even in interplanetary space. Here are some of the things you can do with this blog:

✦ Create a model of a proposed system and then translate that model into a database
✦ Find out about the capabilities and limitations of SQL
✦ Discover how to develop reliable and maintainable database systems
✦ Create databases

✦ Speed database queries
✦ Protect databases from hardware failures, software bugs, and Internet attacks
✦ Control access to sensitive information
✦ Write effective database applications
✦ Deal with data from a variety of nontraditional data sources by using XML