The United States government has adopted ANSI X3.135-1989,
Database Language SQL, as the database language to be used by all
federal departments and agencies. This SQL standard, known as Federal
Information Processing Standard 127.1 (FIPSPUB 127.1), requires
that an option be provided which flags all features or extensions
that do not conform to the SQL language or are processed in a nonconforming
manner. FIPS 127.1 also has added an optional integrity enhancement
feature, addendum 1, to X3.135-1989. Addendum 1 includes referential
integrity constraints, a check clause, and a default clause. A feature
does not have to be flagged if it conforms to addendum 1.
The SQL standard does not contain functionality for many common
categories, such as storage management and index creation. While
many of these non-standard features are useful, they can reduce
the portability of programs that use them. Most SQL implementations
(including ALLBASE/SQL) support implementation-defined features that
do not conform to FIPS 127.1. These non-standard implementation
features are of concern to users who want to port programs and who
need to identify features that do not conform to FIPS 127.1. In
order to recognize features and extensions that do not conform to
the SQL standard, FIPS 127.1 requires that a flagger capability
be implemented that identifies any non-standard features. This flag
can be implemented through software or in documentation. In addition
to this appendix, ALLBASE/SQL provides flagger options for preprocessing
and a SET FLAGGER command in ISQL. Refer to the ALLBASE/SQL Advanced
Application Programming Guide and the ALLBASE/ISQL
Refernece Manual respectively for related documentation.
