- applet
- A program created with Java classes, that is not intended
to be run on its own but rather to be embedded in another application,
such as a browser.
- autocommit mode
- A mode in which a COMMIT statement
is automatically executed after each statement sent to the database
server.
-
BLOB
- A smart large object data type that stores any kind of binary
data, including images. The database server performs no interpretation
on the contents of a BLOB column.
See also smart large object.
- blobpage
- The unit of disk allocation within a blobspace. The size of
a blobpage is determined by the DBA and
can vary from blobspace to blobspace.
- blobspace
- A logical collection of chunks that is used to store TEXT and BYTE data.
See also dbspace.
-
built-in data type
- A fundamental data type defined by the database server; for
example, INTEGER, CHAR,
or SERIAL8.
-
BYTE
- A built-in data type for a simple large object that stores
any type of binary data. The object can be as large as 231 bytes.
-
cast
- A mechanism that the database server uses to convert data
from one data type to another. The server provides built-in casts
that it performs automatically. Users can create both implicit and explicit
casts.
See also cast support function, explicit cast, implicit cast, system-defined cast.
-
cast support function
- A function that is used to implement an implicit or explicit
cast by performing the necessary operations for conversion between
two data types. A cast support function is optional unless the internal
storage representations of the two data types are not equivalent.
- CLASSPATH
- An environment variable that tells the Java virtual machine
(JVM) and other applications where to find
the Java class libraries used in a Java program.
- CLOB
- A data type for a smart large object that stores text items,
such as PostScript or HTML files.
See also smart large object.
- code set
- A set of unique bit patterns that are mapped to the characters
contained in a specific natural language, which include the alphabet, digits,
punctuation, and diacritical marks. There can be more than one code
set for a language; for example, the code sets for the English language include ASCII,
ISO8895-1, and Microsoft 1252. You specify the code set that your
database server uses when you set the GLS locale.
See also locale.
- collection
- An instance of a collection data type; a group of elements
of the same data type stored in a SET, MULTISET,
or LIST object.
See also collection data type.
-
collection data type
- A complex data type that groups values, called elements, of
a single data type in a column. Collection data types consist of the SET, MULTISET,
or LIST type constructor and an element
type, which can be any data type, including a complex data type.
- complex data type
- A data type that is built from a combination of other data
types using an SQL type constructor or
the CREATE ROW TYPE statement and whose
components can be accessed through SQL statements.
Complex data types include collection data types and row data types.
- concurrency
- The ability of two or more processes to access the same database
simultaneously.
- connection
- An association between an application and a database environment,
created by a CONNECT or DATABASE statement.
Database servers can also have connections to one another.
See also explicit connection, implicit connection.
- constructed data type
- A complex data type created with a type constructor; for example,
a collection data type or an unnamed row data type.
- CORBA
- (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) The CORBA 2.0
specification describes a convention called Object Request Broker
(ORB), the infrastructure for distributed-object
computing. CORBA enables client applications
to communicate with remote objects and invoke operations statically
or dynamically.
- cursor
- An SQL object that points to a row
in the results table returned by a SELECT statement.
A cursor enables an application to process data from multiple data
sets simultaneously rather than sequentially.
-
cursor function
- A user-defined function that returns one or more rows of data
and requires a cursor to execute. An SPL function
is a cursor function when its RETURN statement
contains the WITH RESUME keywords. An external
function is a cursor function when it is defined as an iterator function.
- database URL
- A URL passed to the DriverManager.getConnection() method
that specifies the subprotocol (the database connectivity mechanism),
the database or database server identifier, and a list of properties
that can include Informix environment variables.
- data type
- See built-in data type, extended data type.
-
DataBlade API
- The C application programming interface (API)
for IBM Informix Dynamic
Server. The DataBlade API is used for the development of DataBlade
modules. The DataBlade API contains routines to process data in
the database server and return the results to the calling application.
-
DataBlade API data types
- A set of Informix C data types that correspond to some of
the Informix SQL data types, including
extended data types. You should use these data types instead of
the standard C data types to ensure portable applications.
-
dbspace
- A logical collection of one or more chunks within which you
store databases and tables. Because chunks represent specific regions
of disk space, the creators of databases and tables can control
where their data is physically located by placing databases or tables
in specific dbspaces.
See also BLOB.
- delimiter
- The boundary of an input field or the terminator for a database
column or row. Some files and prepared objects require a semicolon
( ; ), comma ( , ), pipe ( | ), space, or tab delimiter between
statements.
- distinct data type
- A data type based on an existing opaque, built-in, distinct,
or named row data type, known as its source type. The distinct data
type has the same internal storage representation as its source
type, but it has a different name. To compare a distinct data type with
its source type requires an explicit cast. A distinct data type
inherits all routines that are defined on its source type.
-
DOM
- (Document Object Model) A tree of objects with interfaces
for traversing the tree and writing an XML version of it, as defined
by the Document Object Model Level 1 Specification (available at http://www.w3.org/DOM/). A DOM object
has the data type Document.
See also SAX, JAXP, XML.
-
explicit cast
- A cast that requires a user to specify the CAST AS keyword
or cast operator ( :: ) to convert data from one data type to another.
See also cast, cast support function.
-
explicit connection
- A connection made to a database environment that uses the CONNECT statement.
See also implicit connection.
-
extended data type
- A data type that is not built-in; namely, a collection data
type, row data type, opaque data type, or distinct data type.
- fundamental data type
- A data type that cannot be broken into smaller pieces by the
database server using SQL statements; for
example, built-in data types and opaque data types.
-
Global Language Support
(GLS)
- An application environment that allows Informix application programming
interfaces (APIs) and database servers
to handle different languages, cultural conventions, and code sets.
Developers use the GLS libraries to manage
all string, currency, date, and time data types in their code. Using GLS,
you can add support for a new language, character set, and encoding
by editing resource files, without access to the original source
code and without rebuilding the client software.
- host variable
- A C or COBOL program
variable that is referenced in an embedded statement. A host variable
is identified by the dollar sign ( $ ) or colon ( : ) that precedes
it.
-
implicit cast
- A cast that the database server automatically performs to
convert data from one data type to another.
See also cast, cast support function.
-
implicit connection
- A connection made using a database
statement (DATABASE, CREATE DATABASE, START DATABASE, DROP DATABASE).
See also explicit connection.
- IP address
- The unique ID of each computer on
the Internet. The format consists of four numerical strings separated
by dots, such as 123.45.67.89.
- jar utility
- A JavaSoft utility that creates Java archive, or JAR,
files. JAR is a platform-independent file
format that aggregates many files into one.
-
JAXP
- (Java API for XML Parsing)
An API for parsing XML documents,
using two main parsing methods, Simple API for XML (SAX)
and Document Object Model (DOM.) JAXP provides
a "plugability layer" around the SAX and DOM APIs,
which standardizes access to different implementations of SAX and DOM.
The plugability layer is a set of methods for instantiating and
configuring SAX parsers and creating DOM objects.
For more information, see http://java.sun.com/xml.
See also SAX, DOM, XML
- keyword
- A word that has meaning to a programming language. In Informix SQL, keywords
are shown in syntax diagrams in all uppercase letters. They must
be used in SQL statements exactly as shown
in the syntax, although they can be in either uppercase or lowercase
letters.
- large object
- A data object that exceeds 255 bytes in length. A large object
is logically stored in a table column but physically stored independently of
the column, because of its size. Large objects can contain non-ASCII data. IBM Informix Dynamic
Server recognizes
two kinds of large objects; simple large objects (TEXT, BYTE)
and smart large objects (CLOB and BLOB).
See also simple large object, smart large object.
- LIST data type
- A collection data type in which elements are ordered and duplicates
are allowed.
See also collection data type.
-
locale
- A set of files that define the native-language behavior of
the program at runtime. The rules are usually based on the linguistic
customs of the region or the territory. The locale can be set through
an environment variable that dictates output formats for numbers,
currency symbols, dates, and time, as well as collation order for character
strings and regular expressions.
See also Global Language Support (GLS).
- LVARCHAR
- A built-in data type that stores varying-length character
data greater than 256 bytes. It is used for input and output casts
for opaque data types. LVARCHAR supports
code-set order for comparisons of character data.
- metadata
- Data about data. Metadata provides information about data
in the database or used in the application. Metadata can be data
attributes, such as name, size, and data type, or descriptive information
about data.
- MULTISET data type
- A collection data type in which elements are not ordered and
duplicates are allowed.
See also collection data type.
-
named row data type
- A row data type that is created with the CREATE ROW TYPE statement and
has a name. A named row data type can be used to construct a typed
table and can be part of a type or table hierarchy.
See also row data type, unnamed row data type.
- opaque data type
- An extended data type that contains one or more members but
whose internal structure is interpreted by the database server using
user-defined support routines.
- RMI
- (Remote Method Invocation) A method for creating distributed
Java-to-Java applications, in which the methods of remote Java objects
can be invoked from other Java virtual machines, possibly on different
hosts.
-
row data type
- A complex data type consisting of a group of ordered data
elements (fields) of the same or different data types. The fields
of a row type can be of any supported built-in or extended data
type, including complex data types, except SERIAL and SERIAL8 and,
in certain situations, TEXT and BYTE.
There are two kinds of row data types:
- Named row types, created using the CREATE ROW TYPE statement
- Unnamed row types, created using the ROW constructor
See also named row data type, unnamed row data type.
-
SAX
- (Simple API for XML)
An event-driven interface for processing XML documents
in which the parser invokes one of several methods supplied by the
caller when a "parsing event" occurs. Events include
recognizing an XML tag, finding an error,
encountering a reference to an external entity, or processing am
Document Type Definition (DTD) specification.
See also DOM, XML, JAXP.
- scroll cursor
- A cursor that can fetch the next row or any prior row, thereby
allowing it to read rows multiple times.
- servlet
- An extension method for many common protocols, especially HTTP.
Servlets are modules that run inside request/response-oriented servers. Servlets
are similar to applets in that their classes might be dynamically
loaded, either across the network or from local storage. However,
servlets differ from applets in that they lack a graphical interface.
- SET data type
- A collection data type in which elements are not ordered and
duplicates are not allowed.
See also collection data type.
-
simple large object
- A large object that is stored in a blobspace, is not recoverable,
and does not obey transaction isolation modes. Simple large objects include TEXT and BYTE data
types.
See also TEXT, BYTE.
-
smart large object
- A large object that:
- Is stored in an sbspace, a logical storage area that contains
one or more chunks
- Has read, write, and seek properties similar to a UNIX file
- Is recoverable
- Obeys transaction isolation modes
- Can be retrieved in segments by an application
Smart large objects include CLOB and BLOB data types.
- sqlhosts file
- An Informix file containing information that lets a client
application find and connect to an Informix database server anywhere on
the network.
- SQLSTATE
- A variable that contains status values about the outcome of SQL statements.
- support routines
- The internal routines that the database server automatically
invokes to process a data type, cast, aggregate, or access method.
The database server uses user-defined support routines to perform
operations (such as converting to and from the internal, external,
and binary representations of the type) on opaque data types.
A secondary access method uses a support routine in an operator
class to perform operations (such as building or searching) on an
index.
- sysmaster database
- A master database created and maintained by every Informix
database server. The sysmaster database contains
the ON–Archive catalog tables and system monitoring interface (SMI)
tables. Do not modify this database.
- system catalog
- A group of database tables that contain information about
the database itself, such as the names of tables or columns in the
database, the number of rows in a table, the information about indexes
and database privileges, and so on.
-
system-defined cast
- A cast that is built into the database server. A system-defined
cast performs automatic conversions between different built-in data
types.
-
TEXT
- A built-in data type for a simple large object that stores
text data and can be as large as 231 bytes.
- tuple buffer
- The section of IBM Informix JDBC
Driver memory that stores the retrieved rows
from a SELECT statement.
-
unnamed row data type
- A row type created with the ROW constructor
that has no defined name and no inheritance properties. Two unnamed
row types are equivalent if they have the same number of fields
and if corresponding fields have the same data type, even if the
fields have different names.
-
XML
- (Extensible Markup Language) A markup language defined by
the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) that
provides rules, guidelines, and conventions for describing structured
data in a plain text, editable file. XML uses
tags only to delimit pieces of data, leaving the interpretation
of the data to the application that uses it.
See also DOM, SAX, JAXP.