Informix Guide to SQL: Syntax Segments

Use the Database Name segment to specify the name of a database. Use the Database Name segment whenever you see a reference to a database name in a syntax diagram.

Database names are not case sensitive. You cannot use delimited identifiers for a database name.

If you are using a nondefault locale, you can use characters from the code set of your locale in the names of databases.

If you are using a multibyte code set, keep in mind that the maximum length of the database name refers to the number of bytes, not the number of characters.

For further information on the GLS aspects of naming databases, see the Informix Guide to GLS Functionality.

You can choose a database on another database server as your current database by specifying a database server name. The database server that dbservername specifies must match the name of a database server that is listed in your sqlhosts information.

The @ symbol is a literal character that introduces the database server name. If you specify a database server name, do not put any spaces between the @ symbol and the database server name. You can either put a space between dbname and the @ symbol, or omit the space.

The following examples show valid database specifications:

empinfo@personnel
empinfo @personnel

In these examples, empinfo is the name of the database and personnel is the name of the database server.

If you use a path-type naming method, do not put spaces between the quotes, slashes, and names, as the following example shows:

'//personnel/empinfo' 

In this example, empinfo is the name of the database and personnel is the name of the database server.

You can use a host variable within an ESQL/C application to contain a value that represents a database environment.