Netezza SQL introduction

IBM® Netezza® SQL is the Netezza Structured Query Language (SQL), which runs on the Netezza data warehouse appliance. Throughout this publication, the term SQL is the Netezza SQL implementation. Several standards relate to the definition of Netezza SQL.

SQL-92 (also called SQL/2), is the operative ANSI/ISO standard for relational databases today. While no vendor supports the complete SQL-92 standard, Netezza SQL conforms to all the commonly supported components of SQL-92. In addition, Netezza includes some SQL:1999 extensions and some SQL:2003 extensions. This publication describes the Netezza SQL language support.

If you have direct access to the Netezza appliance from a command shell, or if you have UNIX clients with the Netezza CLI tools, you can run SQL commands by using the nzsql command-line interpreter. You can also run Netezza SQL commands by using common SQL tools and applications that support ODBC, JDBC, and OLE DB data connectivity APIs.

The Netezza system can support multiple concurrent connections from clients. Within a connection, Netezza supports only one active SQL activity at a time.

This document uses the nzsql command to show query and command examples.