Re: Preparing an unload statement

Apostolos Varnas (tvarnas@compulink.gr) wrote: : Craig Ostrom wrote: : > : > As Online 5 does not have a table-level backup facility, I am writing one in : > 4gl. Problem is, I get a syntax error when trying to prepare the unload : > statement for subsequent execution. The statement is: : > unload to "ae.unl" select * from ae; : > This works in isql but not in 4gl. Does anyone know if unload statements are : > invalid in 4gl? : > : > Thanks for your effort in advance.Craig, : you cannot prepare an unload statement. : Why you have to prepare it ? It's true you can't PREPARE an UNLOAD statement, and in Craig's example there's no reason to. But say you want to build the SELECT at run time (based on user-provided conditions, you can put the SELECT in a string like so: LET sqltxt = "select * from ae" unload to "ae.unl" sqltxt This is from the 4gl 6.0 manuals, but I know I've done something like this in pre-6.0 versions as well. And, on 2nd thought, this coule be handy for Craig's task: DECLARE c_systables CURSOR FOR SELECT tabname FROM systables WHERE tabid > 99 FOREACH c_systables INTO ltabname CALL unload_table(ltabname) END FOREACH ... FUNCTION unload_table(ltabname) DEFINE ltabname LIKE systables.tabname DEFINE unlfile CHAR(20) DEFINE sqltxt CHAR(80) LET unlfile = ltabname CLIPPED, ".unl" LET sqltxt = "SELECT * FROM ", ltabname CLIPPED UNLOAD TO unlfile sqltxt END FUNCTION ======================================================================= Dennis J. Pimple dennisp@informix.com Opinions expressed Principal Consultant -------------------- are mine, and do not Informix Software Inc Voice: 303-850-0210 necessarily reflect Denver Colorado USA Fax: 303-779-4025 those of my employer.