Re: rowid

Smitty wrote: > We have 1800+ 4GL programs written using Informix SE 4.0 and have > needed to upgrade for a LONG time. We have a 5-user version of > Informix IDS 7.31.UD5-1 to test with. Someone told us that the newer > versions of Informix don't support "rowid", which is included in a lot > of our code thanks to the FourGen CASE tools. We are having trouble > getting a definitive answer to this question, does anyone know when or > if Informix products stopped using rowid? Did anyone answer this? rowid is still supported, but deprecated to use that ugly modern word. The major reason is that explicitely fragmented tables do not get rowids by default; if you want them than a fake bodgy kind of serial number is provided to emulate rowids. Even if you don't fragment your tables, if you modify a table and it uses the "inplace alter algorithm" to modify the table without re-writing it (a wonderful space and time saving feature) then your row can suddenly move (resulting in a different rowid) when you update it. A symptom of this is a row that suddenly "disappears" after updating it when referring to it using the rowid. The only cure for this is to force a re-write of the table whenever you modify a table schema. As such, your FourGen programs will continue to work, but you will be frowned upon by the Codd of databases. -- There's nowt wrong wi' owt what mitherin' clutterbucks don't barly grummit! - Replies directly to this message will go to an account that may not be checked for a week or two. For more timely e-mail response, use (only in an emergency) ahamm sanderson net au with all the usual punctuation.