SQL:2003

The SQL:2003 standard makes minor modifications to all parts of SQL:1999 (also known as SQL3), and officially introduces a few new features such as:^[1]

• XML-related features (SQL/XML)
• Window functions
• the sequence generator, which allows standardized sequences
• two new column types: auto-generated values and identity-columns
• the new MERGE statement
• extensions to the CREATE TABLE statement, to allow "CREATE TABLE AS" and "CREATE TABLE LIKE"
• removal of the poorly implemented "BIT" and "BIT VARYING" data types
• OLAP capabilities (initially added in SQL:1999) were extended with a window function.^[2]

The SQL standard is not freely available but may be purchased from ISOorANSI. A late draft is available as a zip archive from Whitemarsh Information Systems Corporation. The zip archive contains a number of PDF files that define the parts of the SQL:2003 specification.

• BNF Grammar for ISO/IEC 9075:2003 – SQL/Framework