Re: How to convert an informix database?
George Poulson <george@gpdesign.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>Apologies if this seems like a stupid question, but knowing little about
>the informix system I am looking for a bit of advice.. and this seems
>like a good place to ask!
It is the best place to ask!
>I have just been asked "what would be involved in extracting data from
>an informix database and in what format(s) can it be extracted".
The answer varies a little depending on which version and which
particular database (Online or Standard Engine) the client is using.
Generally Informix provides two ways of exporting data.
One is called 'unload' which is an SQL command which outputs data
from an SQL statement to a ascii file which separates columns with a
pipe ( | ) symbol. This command does not give you the database
structure, but this can be obtained as a series of SQL commands in an
ascii file using a command called 'dbschema'.
The second is a utility called 'dbexport' this produces a series of
ascii files containing all the data from the database and a script
file with the data structure.
If the client has ACE reports (part of the Informix SQL development
package for versions below 5.0 ) you could write custom reports to
create 'ascii' files in almost any format, but you would have to write
a report for every table in the database.
>The client has had a major "difference of opinion" with the supplier /
>maintainer of their system and now wishes to move their data over to
>another system. Obviously being able to read and/or translate the data
>is a fundamental requirement.
>The data is currently held on an "Altos" machine running AIX; if possible
>they would like to convert the data to an MS Access or dBase format.
Isn't dBase a step backward?
Basically you can get the data out of Informix no problem, but you
will need to do some file conversion regardless. This could
potentially be automated with some UNIX shell scripts. (For example
to change the file format from Informix unload format to CSV's)
Regards
Paul McGuire