What flavor of SQL is used inside Microsoft Access?
For full details read the docs: Microsoft Access SQL reference
MS Access definitely is not the same as SQL Server. The overall syntax is similar as any flavor of SQL, but it doesn't have a lot of features that were added since SQL Server 2005.
It doesn't even have some pretty basic features, like:
DISTINCT
aggregate function references. For example, Microsoft Access SQL does not allowSUM(DISTINCT columnname)
.- The
LIMIT TO nn ROWS
clause used to limit the number of rows returned by a query. You can use only theWHERE
clause to limit the scope of a query.
On the other hand, it has enhanced features, like:
- The
TRANSFORM
statement, which provides support for crosstab queries.- Additional aggregate functions, such as
StDev
andVarP
.- The
PARAMETERS
declaration for defining parameter queries.
Window functions that were added since SQL Server 2005+, such as ROW_NUMBER
, OVER
clause don't exist as well.
Set of built-in functions for string or date/time manipulation are similar, but they are not the same.