Re: V5R3 API Finder & SQL

Bruce Vining wrote:

You can blame me... To my way of thinking these are system APIs as support
for the function is in the i operating system (I do not need the SQL product
installed to use them). To my simplistic view of the world this is the same
as not needing the C compiler installed in order to utilize C run-time APIs
(and I certainly want C run-time functions to show up in the API Finder).

No. It's nothing like not needing the C compiler to call C runtime functions. C runtime functions are subprocedures that can be called from any ILE language via their "call procedure" routine. They are APIs.

There are SQL APIs as well. SQLExecDirect() for example is an API, and it's related to SQL. It belongs in the Information Center under APIs.

However, the stuff that David linked to aren't APIs. They're SQL statements. You can't call them as APIs. (You could pass them as a parameter to SQLExecDirect (or similar), of course, but in that case it's SQLExecDirect that's the API, not the string you pass as a parameter to it!)

Calling these APIs is like calling 'WRKACTJOB' an API. Just because I can execute WRKACTJOB with the QCMDEXC API doesn't mean that WRKACTJOB itself is an API. If you're going to consider the stuff David linked to as APIs (SQL Statements likE SET SCHEMA, CREATE PROCEDURE, et al) then you may as well consider everything in the Information Center to be an API.