QUERY/V provides a simple method of accessing IMAGE data bases without programming effort. You can use QUERY to do the following:
modify or delete data values
retrieve data which meets selection criteria
report on the data retrieved
You perform these operations by entering simple commands consisting
of English keywords such as FIND and REPORT.
You can request information about the function, format, and
parameters of QUERY commands with the HELP command.
All of the QUERY commands are discussed in Section 3.
You only need to know the relationships of the data base elements
and not the structure of the disc files.
You can request information about the structure of the data bases
with the FORM command.
QUERY finds the data and
performs the operations in response to your commands using the data
base, data set, and data item names you specify.
QUERY can be used either in session (interactive) mode or job
(batch) mode. If you are using QUERY interactively at a terminal,
QUERY prompts you for commands, issues
error messages when an error occurs, and prints other information
of interest to you. You can operate QUERY in job mode as an MPE
job from an input device. In job mode, any error messages are
printed on the $STDLIST device which is usually a line printer.
QUERY adheres to all of the IMAGE security provisions described
in the IMAGE Reference Manual. You must enter a valid password for the data base you want to use. This password determines which
information you can access in the data base.
QUERY report formatting capabilities enable you to design reports
with header and column labels, page numbers, and group labels. In
addition, you can sort entries through multiple fields, as well as
total, average, or count columns of numeric data values.
A sequence of commands can be stored in a file and executed at any
time by entering the XEQ command as part of a session or a job.
A frequently used or complex command can be stored as an individual
procedure in a file referred to as a Proc-file. The procedure
name can then be used in place of the command parameters.
If your local HP 3000 and a remote HP 3000 have Distributed Systems
(DS/3000) capability, you can use QUERY to access IMAGE data bases residing
on the remote computer and retrieve information to be used on the
local system. Three methods of accessing a remote data base are
described in Appendix C.
QUERY allows you to write your own user-defined
procedures in any programming language which enable
a report to perform a specialized function not provided by QUERY.
Refer to Appendix F for further discussion.
All of the tasks except user-defined report procedures can be
accomplished without programming.
If you are developing programs
which access IMAGE data bases through the IMAGE library procedures,
QUERY makes an excellent debugging aid. You can alter the data
base content using your program and then use QUERY to examine the data
and determine the results of your programmed changes.
