Sql/Med - A Status Report

In March, 2001, we delivered a (partly) guested column covering the topic of Management of External Data [1]. The column you are reading right now reports on the on-going development of the SQL/MED standard and is authored by all but one of the authors of that earlier column. We trust that our readers will benefit from this update on an interesting and important part of SQL. Jim Melton and Andrew Eisenberg