Proprietary Extensions

By: Yasmeen Shabana

BSc of Electrical Engineering and Power Machines.

MSc of Software Engineering.

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There is no doubt that most of the database products are using SQL language. However,
most of the database solution providers have introduced many customizations in addition to
the standards of SQL language by using proprietary extensions to add unique functionalities to
their products. Vendors are getting great flexibility in providing several DBMS that is built
around SQL with more proprietary extensions (Rouse, 2016). Vendors such as Microsoft SQL
Server, Oracle Database, IBM DB2, SAP HANA, SAP Adaptive Server, MySQL, and PostgreSQL
offer additional functionalities to improve the database systems performance by optimizing the
data processing in business processes and consequently improving the SQL queries results
(Vrhovnik et al., 2008).
In addition to complying with ANSI and ISO standards required for SQL (Odendaal,
2017), Oracle offers many features that extend beyond the standard SQL features (Oracle,
2002). Oracle offers an extension package that supports direct access to SQL data in Oracle
format. Another extension package that provides interfaces to support database access and
updates in Oracle data type formats. These extensions are significantly improving the efficiency
by providing direct access to the data rather than converting to Java format and thus offers high
precision for mathematical operations representation (Oracle, 2018).
In order to handle the continuous increase of the requirements for managing enterprise
data that is continuously expanding with different characteristics, SAP HANA database includes
a multi-engine query processing environment. SAP HANA database has an advantage of
understanding business objects and directly work with them inside the database. SAP HANA
extensions support fuzzy search, “what if” analysis, control flow logic expressions and
imperative language constructs such as loops and conditionals (Färber et al., 2012).
SQL differs from other programming languages as it is a non-procedural language and
the SQL statements are about what to do, not how to do it (University of Liverpool, 2015). SQL
includes commands to create, manipulate and administrate database objects (Coronel and
Morris, 2015). SQL also may differ from other programming languages such that SQL is made up
of about sixty “data definition” and “data manipulation” commands all of which make different
queries to the database (Mohn, 2015), while other programming languages such as C#, for
example, is not a command-based language but rather has a specific syntax that the developer
can use to create a certain application.
 SQL language is generally easier to learn than other programming languages and the
users are most likely to quickly increase their competency and knowledge of SQL once they
start practising using it (University of Liverpool, 2015). SQL also differs from other procedural
languages such as C, COBOL, and Java, that SQL doesn’t define how the operation of the
application shall be performed or in which sequence, it rather leaves this to the DBMS. This
means SQL is more concerned with the result of the operation. Therefore, SQL is used with
other programming languages such as C or Java that are not meant for manipulating data in the
database (Oppel, 2016).

REFERENCES
Coronel, C. and Morris, S. (2015) Database Systems Design, Implementation, and Management.
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Färber, F. et al. (2012) ‘SAP HANA database: data management for modern business
applications’, ACM SIGMOD Record, 40(4), p. 45.
Mohn, E. (2015) ‘SQL (Structured Query Language)’, Salem Press Encyclopedia of Science.
Odendaal, A. (2017) ‘Relational Database Proprietary Extensions’, ao, 12 November. Available
at: https://ao.gl/relational-database-proprietary-extensions/ (Accessed: 16 June 2018).
Oppel, A. J. (2016) ‘Chapter 1: Introduction to Relational Databases and SQL’, in SQL: A
Beginner’s Guide. 4th edn. New York : McGraw-Hill Education, [2016] (Online access with DDA:
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https://docs.oracle.com/cd/B19306_01/java.102/b14355/oraint.htm#i1052570 (Accessed: 16
June 2018).
Rouse, M. (2016) SQL (Structured Query Language), Search SQL Server. Available at:
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University of Liverpool (2015) ‘Week 3 - Structured Query Language’, in CKIT 504: Designing and
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https://elearning.uol.ohecampus.com/bbcswebdav/institution/UKL1/_MASTERS_/MS_CKIT/CKI
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Vrhovnik, M. et al. (2008) ‘An Overview of SQL Support in Workflow Products’, in 2008 IEEE
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