SQL
SQL is standardized by ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 32 jointly with ANSI; the current edition, SQL:2023 (ISO/IEC 9075:2023, the 9th edition), was ratified in June 2023 and is still current in mid-2026. It's a language specification, not licensed software — implementations vary (PostgreSQL License, MySQL's GPLv2/commercial dual license, SQLite's public domain). SQL:2023 added a native JSON data type and Part 16, SQL/PGQ, which lets you query property graphs over relational tables via a new GRAPH_TABLE operator — already shipping in Oracle Database 23ai and slated for PostgreSQL 19 (in beta as of mid-2026, GA expected September/October 2026). Adoption: TIOBE ranks SQL #8 of all languages in July 2026 at 1.71% share, and 58.6% of developers reported using it in the 2025 Stack Overflow Developer Survey. Current version/status: SQL:2023 (ISO/IEC 9075:2023), 9th edition, ratified June 2023 — current as of July 2026. License: N/A — SQL is a language specification, not licensed software. Implementations carry their own license: PostgreSQL (PostgreSQL License, permissive), MySQL (GPLv2 or commercial), SQLite (public domain).. Pricing: The language itself is free to use. The official ISO/IEC 9075:2023 standard document must be purchased from iso.org, with individual parts running roughly 200-230 CHF each; nearly all practitioners instead use free vendor docs and tutorials. Maintained by ISO/IEC JTC
Pick SQL when data is relational, reads outnumber writes, and you want decades of query optimizers, hires, and tooling behind you — it's the default for OLTP backends, analytics warehouses, and any resume line a hiring manager recognizes on sight. Skip it for graph traversals with unpredictable depth (reach for Cypher/Neo4j instead) or schema-less documents you'll reshape weekly (MongoDB). The community's own gripe: NULL's three-valued logic and vendor dialect drift — window-function syntax, date arithmetic, LIMIT/OFFSET vs FETCH — mean 'portable ANSI SQL' is aspirational, not real. Known weakness: NULL's three-valued logic and heavy vendor dialect drift (window functions, date handling, pagination syntax) mean code written to the ANSI standard routinely fails to run unmodified on a different engine — a gap the standards body itself keeps patching release to release.
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