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Table of Contents
- STRUCTURE OF THE DATA BASE
- Fully-Qualified Data Item Names
- Data Types
- Data Values
- Compound Data Items
- Data Set Relations
- Sample Data Base
- MODES OF ACCESS
- Logging and Mode Selection
- PASSWORDS
- QUERY CHARACTER SET
- MPE FILES
QUERY/iX provides a simple method of accessing IMAGE data
bases without programming effort. You can use QUERY to do the following:
enter data 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 TurboIMAGE/XL Database Management System 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 provides for enhancement of the standard TurboIMAGE
retrieval mechanisms via the Third Party Indexing (TPI) interface.
See the TPI Vendor's documentation for further information.
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.
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