Re: SQL Newbies List?

From: mathprof@bigfoot.com > >I had some fairly basic questions about SQL/ESQL/forms/views/etc, so I >thought I'd join this list/newsgroup. However, looking over the newsgroup >archives, I realized that it is far too high-level for me! False modesty! :-) >Before I unsubscribe, I was wondering if anyone could recommend a more >appropriate list for SQL "newbies" such as myself. I am including a sample >of the types of questions I have below. I appreciate any help! Don't you unsubscribe! I want to see where some of these go! :-) Some of these aren't really typical newbie questions, some of them are actually quite advanced. I suspect you would be better served (from a product point of view) by IDS/UDO, which is a far more advanced database server. SE is fairly old guard. >Sample questions I have: > >% How do I limit a field to specific text (or numeric) values? CHECK CONSTRAINTs? Referential integrity? >% Availability of intelligent web interfaces for adding/editing data on >tables/views. Most of the commercial products will offer ODBC connectivity to SE7.24 >% Spreadsheet-like functions on tables, including references to the >"previous row" (under some specific sort condition of course) Sounds like a job for CURSORs, but that is within a programming language like I4GL, ESQL/C or the like. >% Object-oriented databases using SE You're a better man than me if you get this right. Try IDS/UDO (Informix-Dynamic Server with Universal Data Option). >% User-defined field types IDS/UDO. >% Using ESQL with Perl and/or Java Yes. DBD::Informix for Perl, and there are JDBC drivers available. >% Writing DB procedures in an external language (Perl/Java/etc) You mean stored procedures? No. >% Forms that auto-update when the underlying table(s) receive a DELETE, >UPDATE, or INSERT operation. You'd have to use something that did that. I don't think SPERFORM can do that. Mind you, you might be able to write something in ESQL/C that might be able to achieve that, I wouldn't know how myself. >% Time-travel: preserving older versions of tables, so I can ask questions >like "what did this database look like two months ago". This is a whole other discussion. I'd love to see it develop. >% Arbitrarily long text fields, BLOBs. IDS (with or without UDO) >% General newbie questions on views, cursors, forms and schema. The manuals are very good. http://www.informix.com/answers/ HTH. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com