SPL vs Shell Scripting

I am new to Informix and I was wanting some opinions on the pros and cons of Informix stored procedures. I have a application that will need to select data from several different tables. Do some massaging, do some looping and then insert the results into several tables in a seperate Informix database. Is a task similar to this one best suited for a stored procedure or would a shell script be more appropriate? Your input will be greatly appreciated. -- Scott A Andrews Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Share what you know. Learn what you don't.

Scott A Andrews wrote: > > I am new to Informix and I was wanting some opinions on the pros and > cons of Informix stored procedures. > > I have a application that will need to select data from several > different tables. Do some massaging, do some looping and then insert the > results into several tables in a seperate Informix database. > > Is a task similar to this one best suited for a stored procedure or > would a shell script be more appropriate? Personally I'd use ESQL/C or 4GL instead of either. If you are really more comfortable with scripting languages check out that DBD/DBI Perl package by Jonathan Leffler (ver 0.62 was released last week). Then you can perform your SQL directly from the Perl script. If you settle on using dbaccess in a shell script you may find Jonathan's sqlcmd a better choice than dbaccess. More features, consistent output, and a server mode that will simplify and speed its use in scripts. Art S. Kagel