"insert/delete queries" <--- careless parlance ?

[André Hartmann]

I have a question to you Access guys.

In the news group I frequently read terms like "insert query" "update
query". When I learned SQL I was taught that the language falls into
statements of three categories:

(1) Data Description Language (DDL) commands

CREATE TABLE, CREATE VIEW, ALTER TABLE, ....

(2) Data Manipulation Language (DML) commands

INSERT, DELETE, UPDATE

(3) Queries

SELECT

This categorisation seems to make sense to me and in all the literature on
database management systems it is obeyed. From that, it doesnt make sense to
call an UPADTE or INSERT statement a "query" because it doesn't "query" the
database, i.e. it does not deliver back records (except for the number of
records altered). "insert/update query" looks extremely strange to me and I
have never come across it until I started reading this news group.

That's why my question is: Is that common sense/usage among Access
programmers to call DML statements "queries" too ? Is it justified ? And why
is it that way and who introduced it ?

Thanks in advance for clarifying this for me,

André Hartmann
Oracle, MS SQL Server and MS Access programmer
Berlin, Germany

 

[nobodyinparticular]

Sounds as if you have too much time on your hands, most
people that post to the newsgroups aren't programmers at
all but people looking for help and sharing ideas.
--- A non Programmer/ non MVP Person----

 

[André Hartmann]

Sounds as if you have too much time on your hands, most
people that post to the newsgroups aren't programmers at
all but people looking for help and sharing ideas.
--- A non Programmer/ non MVP Person----

Well you did read it and even took the time to reply. So you can afford
some (time) aswell, obviously.

I believe that a straight, well defined terminology is the foundation of
successful communication. And successful communication will speed up helping
people on here, dont you agree ? If people use certain words for different
purposes or use too many different words for the same thing they will end up
confused and/or confusing and so much time will be spent on clarifying.

This is an IT oriented news group and without starting a survey I would
assume that the vast majority of the posters and readers have a strong
programming background, considering the topics currently discussed here...

AH

 

[Rick Brandt]

I have a question to you Access guys.

In the news group I frequently read terms like "insert query" "update
query". When I learned SQL I was taught that the language falls into
statements of three categories:

(1) Data Description Language (DDL) commands

CREATE TABLE, CREATE VIEW, ALTER TABLE, ....

(2) Data Manipulation Language (DML) commands

INSERT, DELETE, UPDATE

(3) Queries

SELECT

This categorisation seems to make sense to me and in all the literature on
database management systems it is obeyed. From that, it doesnt make sense to
call an UPADTE or INSERT statement a "query" because it doesn't "query" the
database, i.e. it does not deliver back records (except for the number of
records altered). "insert/update query" looks extremely strange to me and I
have never come across it until I started reading this news group.

That's why my question is: Is that common sense/usage among Access
programmers to call DML statements "queries" too ? Is it justified ? And why
is it that way and who introduced it ?

Thanks in advance for clarifying this for me,

We use those terms because those are the terms that Access uses in its own
documentation. Ask Microsoft about it.

Excerpt from Access 97 Help File
*************************************************************
What is an action query and when would you use one?

An action query is a query that makes changes to many records in just one
operation. There are four types of action queries: delete, update, append,
and make-table.

Delete query
Deletes a group of records from one or more tables. ...

Update query
Makes global changes to a group of records in one or more tables. ...

Append query
Adds a group of records from one or more tables to the end of one or more
tables. ...

Make-table query
Creates a new table from all or part of the data in one or more tables. ...