Understanding "SQL"

"SQL" stands for "Structured Query Language".  SQL is a database querying language that has been standardized by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), in consultation with but independant of any particular software company that develops and sells "SQL-based" Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS).  The best know of these companies are Oracle and Microsoft.  Any company which develops a SQL-based RDBMS will implement the base "ANSI SQL" standard and add their own unique commands and features.

ANSI SQL commands will work on queries of any database that structures its information-containing tables according to specified structural standards.  Many nutrition and foodservice management software systems have historically not built their database tables according to this standard, using their own proprietary method of storing data.  These proprietary database tables tended to make the software sluggish (or "not scale well", in technical lingo) when the database became large.  As a result, in recent years most vendors have re-developed their database tables to allow for more efficient querying and storing of large amounts of data using an external SQL-based database engine, such as those developed by Oracle or Microsoft.