The Birth of SQL & the Relational Database

As a much younger software engineer, I still remember this phrase I was taught regarding relational database development. The key, the whole key, and nothing but the key. So help me Codd.

Study math, fly bombers, invent the dominant database structure. What a life!

“Codd, despite having a fishy name “ 😂 😂

I once was interviewed for a senior development position with a major multinational bank with their database guru. He was the one man who knew how the bank managed all of its data. He revealed that they had just one database. It had 600 tables. There were no joins, no relationships, no structure; It was just a massive dumping ground. Trades, transactions, accounts, … everything. The goal was to take this unholy mess and redo something better, while keeping all the existing business units running without interruption. It was an Oracle database.

As a pre-SQL programmer, SQL was a game changer. Using SQL gave me a logical, abstract view of the data structure, significantly reduced my design and coding time, and allowed changes to the database structure without having to break code or migrate data. I used several systems on PCs like DBase and Firefox which had SQL database at their core. Also need to remember that systems back then were so constrained by CPU performance, memory storage, and disk capacity that SQL would have been too large to run on some of the early computers. Great video as always!

I'd argue that SQL is one of the most successful inventions of computer science, on the level of C or even more so. Nothing better has come up despite decades of attempts, and pretty much all complex datastores eventually support SQL as they grow.

Database researcher and university professor here: Very good presentation as usual, though it of course ends with the state of things in the mid 1980s and a lot has happened since, not just in academia but also in industry. As early relational DMBS go, IBM's System R (which has been alluded to in the video but not named and whose DNA lives on to this day in IBM DB2) has had significantly higher impact and relevance than Ingres. Since you mentioned Boyce and Stonebraker, a number of others would have deserved mention at least as much, such as Jim Gray or Pat Selinger. Also, you added to my pain as an academic trying to attract young researchers into the field by making databases look real bland and boring (though important to business). Unfortunately, so many undergrad courses do the same. There is beautiful systems and theory research to be done, and there are interesting fundamental questions that arise here that are much cooler than anything mentioned in this video (though ultimately enabled by Codd).

"Codd, despite having a fishy name, did not want this." 😂😂😂😂

As a newish developer, of all videos, this was the most exciting to see when I saw the thumbnail. SQL has become one the foundational blocks of software development and even today, when all the competing NoSQL paradigms (MongoDB, Firebase, Redis, etc) have claimed a space in database management, we are coming back to SQL with new ideas thanks to PostgreSQL and SQLite related projects like Turso and libSQL. And I really like the image in 14:50 while distant in time is so relatable to my knowledge. A testament on how SQL stood the test of time and won. Really thanks Jon for this video.

There are literally billions of SQL databases in this world, yet very few people knew where or how it got started until now. Thanks again, Jon.

I had the privilege of digitising some Betamax tapes from the Australian Computer Society many years ago from the 10th Australian Computer Conference held in 1983. Chris Date, a relational database expert, gave a presentation on one of these tapes and made many claims about what the future would be for databases. "Like it or not, SQL is going to become a very important language. It might become an actual standard, and it almost certainly will become a de facto standard." The full speech is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnNbddUMZQI

Moral of the story: Concepts are great for awards but actual working code/products can make you rich.

Being a DBA student, it's interesting to see where all modern concepts began.

SQL is so useful. And you can learn 90% of what you need in two weeks. There's a reason it's so ubiquitous.

Your videos are so important. Documenting and popularising the foundational building blocks of our modern world.

I like how You dig out filthy details: "Deliverability, Redundancy and Consistency of Relations stored in Large Data Banks" with the exact date on it +++

Larry Ellison has entered the chat

I have to profess my love of this channel and your content. I don't know how I was lured into this channel at first, I'm not Asian, and I'm just a mere MSP technician who grew up in the 80s and 90s. But you always seem to hit the right note, and Sunday nights haven't been the same since. You're doing it right, sir. 🤩 I eat these videos up, and wanted to say "thanks".

Really enjoyed that, but then I do have a 35 year SQL career behind me. Furthermore, almost all of it was new to me despite my extended immersion. I have to be honest, when I hear Codd's name, I usually switch off: it's usually in relation to Codd's Rules, academic rules of thumb that in practice are nothing more than common sense and second nature in this line of work. I watched a video on them that I happened to stumble across a few months ago, and yes, it is all common sense codified into a set of rules. So I congratulate you in managing to do a 20 minute video on SQL without ever referring to Codd's Rules!

Hello Jon, In my opinion, this is one of your best video. As a side hustle to my job, I've been writing in SQL for more than a decade. I'd read about how it come to be, but the story you tell is at another level. Thank you Anthony