RE: Cool but ugly SQL

Dan,

There is an ANSI standard SQL, when you hear reference to ANSI89 or ANSI93
SQL, this is the standards body. Each vendor, IBM included, generally tries
to conform to the standard, and IBM IIRC is pretty conformant. Each vendor
adds proprietary extensions to SQL for performance or features, for product
differentiation.

IBM maintains two brands of DB2. The "official" DB2 is from the Toronto
labs, which is the UNIX, AIX, Linux, and Windows version of DB2. The SQL in
the AS/400 and iSeries is Rochester DB2.

The two DB2s are mostly compatible, but not 100%. There are some things you
can do with the "official" DB2 that the iSeries DB2 doesn't support.

For "basic" SQL statements, the ANSI standard should work against both DB2
flavors. Complex statements will vary between them. A good SQL book will
show you the differences between say, SQL Server, Oracle, and DB2; but keep
in mind when the rest of the world says "DB2", they mean the *NIX flavor,
not iSeries.

This is analogous to EDI: There are standard EDI documents, then tweaks and
extensions required by each trading partner.

All this is from memory, so I might have some names confused; it's been a
long day.

HTH,
Loyd


Loyd Goodbar
Senior programmer/analyst
BorgWarner
E/TS Water Valley
662-473-5713

-----Original Message-----
From: Dan [mailto:dan27649@xxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Tuesday, June 20, 2006 08:49
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Cool but ugly SQL

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"particular flavor"?  I thought SQL was supposed to be something like Java,
write once, run everywhere?  Otherwise, what are the standards for?  I think
I understand that AS/400, er, eServer iSeries, er, i5, er, System i has its
own SQL extensions, right?  But you're suggesting that might appear in
Celko's book might not apply to Series i?

</Snip>