Syntax diagrams are drawings that illustrate valid SQL syntax. To read a diagram, trace it from left to right, in the direction shown by the arrows. Commands and other keywords appear in UPPERCASE inside rectangles.

This 15-minute tutorial shows you how to read graphic syntax diagrams in the SQL reference manual and other Oracle Database manuals. Background. The syntax rules and functionality of a SQL statement is specified in Backus-Naur Form (BNF). BNF is simply a way to describe syntax.

This topic describes the structure of SQL syntax diagrams. Read the syntax diagrams from left to right and top to bottom, following the path of the line. Two right arrowheads and a line ── indicates the beginning of a syntax diagram.

literal-value bind-parameter schema-name. table-name. column-name unary-operator expr expr binary-operator expr function-name (function-arguments) filter-clause over-clause (expr), CAST (expr AS type-name) expr COLLATE collation-name expr NOT LIKE GLOB REGEXP MATCH expr expr ESCAPE expr expr ISNULL NOTNULL NOT NULL expr IS NOT DISTINCT FROM ...

This guide uses syntax diagrams built with the following components to describe the syntax for statements and all commands other than system-level commands. Starting in 2004, syntax diagrams have been reformatted to conform to the IBM standard. Syntax diagrams depicting SQL and command-line statements have changed in the following ways:

Jun 6, 2013 · To create a table in SQL Server, we just need to use the CREATE TABLE command, give the table’s name and a list of the columns we need. We can also specify where the table is to be stored and provide some table options, including constraints. To describe this in more detail would take too many words, so I’m going to use diagrams instead.

This appendix describes how to read syntax diagrams. This reference presents Oracle SQL syntax in both graphic diagrams and in text (Backus-Naur Form—BNF). This appendix contains these sections:

When uppercase keywords are followed by the word “statement” (for example, <SELECT statement>), the syntax element is another SQL command statement entirely, and should be replaced by the appropriate syntax diagram. Partial diagrams are labeled with a word or phrase in the upper-left corner.

Does anyone know if diagrams like these exist for MySQL and other dialects? The Bison grammar for MySQL can be processed by a grammar converter to turn it into W3C notation. From that, Railroad Diagram Generator produces syntax diagrams like this:

Aug 30, 2016 · In essence there are 3 use cases for getting a visual representation of SQL code: Reverse engineering someone else's code. A graphical diagram can give you a helicopter view of the structure of SQL code. Clicking on the graphical element highlights the code that is representative of the component.