SQL-99 (more commonly still called, "SQL3", the term we'll use throughout this book) will soon be the current internationally accepted standard for the database programming language called SQL. The SQL Standard — a complicated monster consisting of over 2,100 pages of definitions, syntax and usage rules — describes the required syntax and the rules that must be followed to generate the required result when the syntax is executed by a Standard-conforming DBMS. (This compares to less than 150 pages required to describe the Standard's earlier version, SQL-89.)

This book was written to describe Standard-conforming SQL.