Why does no database fully support ANSI or ISO SQL standards?

Question

If I were designing a oil refinery, I wouldn\'t expect that materials from different vendors would not comply with published standards in subtle yet important ways. Pipework, v

Answer 1

Probably because standards conformance is of a low priority to database system purchasers. They are more interested in:

• compatibility with what they've already got
• performance
• price
• OS support

to name but a few factors.

The same is true of programming languages - very few (if any) compilers support every single feature of the current ANSI C and C++ standards.

As to why bother with standard, well most vendors do eventually bring standard support on board. For example, most vendors support more or less all of SQL89. This allows the vendor to tick a (relatively unimportant) check-box on their spec sheet and also allow people like me who are interested in writing portable code to do so, albeit having to forgo lots of bells and whistles.