Authoritative SQL standard documentation

Question

I'm curious to know some more details about the various SQL standard's, i.e. SQL-92, SQL:99, SQL:2003, SQL:2008 etc. There is a short and useful overview on Wikipedia, with links to very expensive documents. Why are those documents not open to public? Can I find some open and free information?

Please, don't post links you found from Google. I'm interested in somewhat authoritative documentation only.

Answer 1

Quoting from one of my web sites:

We all love open source software. Wouldn’t it be great if international standard documents such as the SQL standard would be open too?

As a matter of fact: they are!

However, they are not free—just public. Very much like open source software is not necessarily free. Too often, we neglect these differences. Just because we have to pay for the standard doesn't mean it is secret.

A download of the most relevant part of the SQL standard—part 2—is available for USD 60 at ANSI. A CD with all parts on it can be bought from ISO for CHF 352. Not free, but affordable.

You mentioned in some comments that you are mostly interested in part 2, so spending USD 60 might be your best option.

If you just need to know about the syntax up to 2003, there are two great free resources:

• BNF grammar of SQL-92, SQL:1999 and SQL:2003: http://www.savage.net.au/SQL/
• Online validator for SQL:1999: https://developer.mimer.com/services/sql-validator-99/

Finally, the complete text of “SQL-99 Complete, Really” is available at the MariaDB knowledge base. However, this book was written in 1999 when no database actually supported the described features. Keep that in mind when using this resource.

Other answers also mentioned "free" copies of the standards available on the web. Yes there are—those are mostly draft versions. I can't tell which of them are legal, so I rather not link them.

Finally a little self ad: I've just launched http://modern-sql.com/ to explain the standard in an easily accessible way to developers. Note that the actual standards text is written like laws are written :) Depending on your background, that might anyway not what you want.

Answer 2

The Postgresql Developer FAQ maintains links to each of them:

http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Developer_FAQ#Where_can_I_get_a_copy_of_the_SQL_standards.3F