Can I attach comments for tables or table columns?
dvh asked whether Informix 7, 10 or 11 can store comments on tables and columns in CREATE TABLE. Art Kagel said there is no such support; comments in DDL are not stored, though he had built separate data dictionary tables for this. Malc wondered whether the upscol column action could be used as a workaround, which would need coding.
Auto-generated by Claude from the posts below — may be imperfect; read the full thread.
I'm using informix 7, 10 and 11, when I create table can I assign
comments for table and it's columns? E.g. like this:
create table user (
id serial,
name char(20) comment "User's first name",
height integer comment "User's height in centimeters, maximaloverall length for amputees"
) comment "Table of users and their height"
I'm affraid there is no support for this in informix, right?
Correct. There is no support for commenting your DDL and storing the
comments. You could, of course, put such commentary in the DDL as
'comments' using any of the legal comment characters, but it won't be stored
anywhere for later display. I have created a Data Dictionary application
for doing this several times in the past with my own commentary tables, but
the comments and other meta-data would be separate from the DDL.
Art
Art S. Kagel
Advanced DataTools (www.advancedatatools.com)
IIUG Board of Directors (art@iiug.org)
Blog: http://informix-myview.blogspot.com/
Disclaimer: Please keep in mind that my own opinions are my own opinions and
do not reflect on my employer, Advanced DataTools, the IIUG, nor any other
organization with which I am associated either explicitly, implicitly, or by
inference. Neither do those opinions reflect those of other individuals
affiliated with any entity with which I am affiliated nor those of the
entities themselves.
On Wed, Nov 10, 2010 at 4:26 AM, dvh <dusan.halicky@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm using informix 7, 10 and 11, when I create table can I assign
> comments for table and it's columns? E.g. like this:
>
> create table user (
> id serial,
> name char(20) comment "User's first name",
> height integer comment "User's height in centimeters, maximal> overall length for amputees"
> ) comment "Table of users and their height"
>
> I'm affraid there is no support for this in informix, right?
> _______________________________________________
> Informix-list mailing list
> Informix-list@iiug.org
> http://www.iiug.org/mailman/listinfo/informix-list
>
Correct. There is no support for commenting your DDL and storing the
comments. You could, of course, put such commentary in the DDL as
'comments' using any of the legal comment characters, but it won't be stored
anywhere for later display. I have created a Data Dictionary application
for doing this several times in the past with my own commentary tables, but
the comments and other meta-data would be separate from the DDL.
Art
Art S. Kagel
Advanced DataTools (www.advancedatatools.com)
IIUG Board of Directors (art@iiug.org)
Blog: http://informix-myview.blogspot.com/
Disclaimer: Please keep in mind that my own opinions are my own opinions and
do not reflect on my employer, Advanced DataTools, the IIUG, nor any other
organization with which I am associated either explicitly, implicitly, or by
inference. Neither do those opinions reflect those of other individuals
affiliated with any entity with which I am affiliated nor those of the
entities themselves.
On Wed, Nov 10, 2010 at 4:26 AM, dvh <dusan.halicky@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm using informix 7, 10 and 11, when I create table can I assign
> comments for table and it's columns? E.g. like this:
>
> create table user (
> id serial,
> name char(20) comment "User's first name",
> height integer comment "User's height in centimeters, maximal> overall length for amputees"
> ) comment "Table of users and their height"
>
> I'm affraid there is no support for this in informix, right?
> _______________________________________________
> Informix-list mailing list
> Informix-list@iiug.org
> http://www.iiug.org/mailman/listinfo/informix-list
>
I suppose you could something clever with "upscol" column action commenting but it would involve coding around it? (Is "upscol" still around?)