Access is indeed an RDBMS, but it did not originally support SQL.

Here is an example straight out of the MS access 1.0 introduction to programming from 1992, page 100, brings back some memories:

> You can also create a Dynaset variable using an SQL string instead of the name of an existing table or query:

Dim db As Database, dsSomeData As Dynaset, SQL

Set db = OpenDatabase("NWIND.MDB")

SQL = "SELECT * FROM Employees WHERE Employees![City] = 'London';"

Set dsSomeData = db.CreateDynaset(SQL)

It had a nice visual builder for queries took me a while to appreciate writing them in SQL, many people never knew it was in there.