This part of International Standard ISO/IEC 9075 specifies the syntax and semantics of a database language for declaring and maintaining persistent database language routines in SQL-server modules.

The database language for (externally-invoked procedure)s and (SQL-invoked routine)s includes: The specification of statements to direct the flow of control; The assignment of the result of expressions to variables and parameters; The specification of condition handlers that allow SQL-invoked routines to deal with various conditions that arise during their execution; The specification of statements to signal and resignal conditions; The declaration of local cursors, and; The declaration of local variables. It also includes the definition of the Information Schema tables that contain schema information pertaining to SQL-server modules and SQL-invoked routines.