I wasn't really thinking about extensions - I was talking about core SQL. Obviously if you use DBMS specific features they aren't going to be portable. However most DBMS that I have used (at least the four I list) make more than a passing attempt to be SQL compatible. I've never used MS SQL (and with luck it may never happen) so I don't know if it accepts LIMIT clauses. Does it? Then your second example would run on MSSQL and everyone would be happy.

As you say DDL is a huge problem but I usually do the schema separately to the program and yes, they have to be ported for each DBMS.

I do agree with you that views are a good idea, and again most good DBMSs should support them. I see most of the problem to be unsupported language features, rather than fundamental incompatibilities. T

____________________
Jeremy
I didn't believe in evil until I dated it.

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