SQL - Structured Query Language
Structured Query Language, is a computer language designed for retrieval and management of data in relational database management systems database schema creation and modification database object access control management.
History:
The first version of SQL was developed at IBM by Donald D. Chamberlin and Raymond F. Boyce in the early 1970s. Standardized in 1986 by ANSI. Subsequent versions of the SQL standard have been released as ISO standards

Latest SQL Standards
SQL:2003: Introduced XML-related features, window functions, standardized sequences, and columns with auto-generated values (including identity-columns).
SQL:2006: ISO/IEC 9075-14:2006 defines ways in which SQL can be used in conjunction with XML.
It defines ways of importing and storing XML data in an SQL database, manipulating it within the database and publishing both XML and conventional SQL-data in XML form.
It provides facilities that permit applications to integrate into their SQL code the use of XQuery, the
XML Query Language published by the World Wide
Web Consortium (W3C), to concurrently access ordinary SQL-data and XML documents.

Why MySQL?
Open source databases are showing the highest growth rate in the database market, according to a new study by analyst firm Gartner.
MySQL is a key part of LAMP (Linux, Apache,
MySQL, PHP / Perl / Python), a fast growing open source enterprise software stack.
MySQL runs on more than 20 platforms including Linux, Windows, OS/X, HP-UX, AIX, Netware.
More and more companies are using LAMP as an alternative to expensive proprietary software stacks because of its lower cost and freedom from lock-in.
Implies Job Opportunities.

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