HP 3000 Manuals

ISQL Reference Manual for ALLBASE/SQL and IMAGE/SQL

Purpose of ISQL 

You use ISQL to enter SQL commands at a terminal.  SQL is the language
used to define and access an ALLBASE/SQL database.  Most SQL statements
can be submitted through ISQL, although a few SQL statements specifically
support programmatic database access and can only be submitted in
application programs. 
As Figure 1-1 illustrates, ISQL interacts with SQLCore, one of the
components of ALLBASE/SQL. SQLCore checks the syntax of statements and
prepares them for processing.


          Figure 1-1.  ISQL and SQLCore Interaction 

ISQL also has its own set of commands which facilitate the interactive
use of SQL statements.  For example, you can use ISQL commands to quickly
change and resubmit previously executed SQL statements.  You can also
group SQL statements together in a file and execute the file through
ISQL.

From ISQL, you can use ISQL and SQL commands to do the following:

   *   Create and maintain DBEnvironments.
   *   Manipulate data.
   *   Load and unload data.
   *   Install modules.

All SQL statement operate on a DBEnvironment; some of the ISQL commands
also result in DBEnvironment access.  ISQL uses SQLCore to carry out all
DBEnvironment access operations. 

The ALLBASE/SQL Reference Manual describes the SQL statement.  A section
entitled "Scope" is included for each statement to indicate whether a
statement can be used in ISQL or an application program.  For the use of
SQL statements in application programs, refer to the ALLBASE/SQL
application programming guide for the language of your choice.

SQLUtil and SQLGEN can be invoked either directly or from ISQL. Refer to
the ALLBASE/SQL Database Administration Guide for complete information on
these utilities.

MPE/iX 5.0 Documentation