Re: Are Informix deaf, dumb, and blind?

May be Informix don't do anything about this right now because it will be available in the Universal Server coming out soon. (Assuming Informix or someone else implement a datablade with this functionallity - but they better do that). Not only will this functionallity be available, but a much more powerfull one: 1. Use any function in addition to UPPER like METAPHONE (pronounciation based search). 2. Create function based indexes so the search is fast. Something like: create index idx_name on metaphone(tablename.columnname) (Don't hold me up to the syntax here.) This last issue may be why Informix haven't implemented an upper function a long time ago. Without the ability to create an index on this function any usage of it, as in the excample below, would require a sequencial scan. If they just implemented the upper function without indexes on it, they would soon get a cry from the user community for such indexes. They would have had to implement that as a special solution within the engine. This whole issue is a significant part why the Universal Server is not only interesting, but actually a necessity for database engines from now on. So the conclusion should be to tell Informix we *must* have a datablade with this kind of functions built in. And an upgrade to the Universal Server must be cheap and easy for all of us. kerry@kcbbs.gen.nz (Kerry Sainsbury) wrote: :In article <526ast$ore@cssun.mathcs.emory.edu>, :Ralph.Halter@pac.panmail.com wrote: :Hi Ralph, :>Thank you, Kerry, for brining this up (again)! :>Many of us are desperately waiting for an elegant, official Informix :>solution for this stupid little problem! :>Cheers. :>Ralph. :Bugs you too, huh? :Rest assured that there *are* people at Informix who sympathsise and are :trying to get The Powers That Be to notice. The problem area, IMHO, is that :nobody's thought of a good marketing phrase to describe this feature. :- Alphabetically scaleable dynamic character manipulation? :>>select first_name,last_name :>>from user_information :>>where UPPER(first_name)=upper('Joe Blo'); :Cheers, :Kerry S :------------------------------------,------------------------------------------ :Kerry Sainsbury, kerry@kcbbs.gen.nz | THE INFORMIX FAQ v2.5 June 96 :Quanta Systems, Auckland | http://www.iiug.org/techinfo/faq/ :New Zealand. Work: +64 9 377-4473 | ftp://ftp.iiug.org/pub/informix/faq : Home: +64 9 279-3571 | ftp://kcbbs.gen.nz:/pub/informix/ Nils.Myklebust@idg.no NM Data AS, P.O.Box 9090 Gronland, N-0133 Oslo, Norway My opinions are those of my company The Informix FAQ is at http://www.iiug.org