 | Level: Introductory Ammu Soni (asoni@us.ibm.com), Senior Quality Assurance Engineer, IBM
10 Jun 2004 Download the standalone DB-Access tool for Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) 9.40.xC2.
Introduction
DB-Access provides a user interface for entering, executing, and debugging Structured Query Language (SQL) statements and Stored Procedure Language (SPL) routines. SQL and SPL allow you to perform data-definition tasks, such as specifying the number and type of data columns in a table as well as data management tasks, such as storing, viewing, and changing table data. The DB-Access interface allows you to apply powerful Informix extensions to SQL and SPL.
You can use DB-Access for the following aspects of database processing:
- Using ad hoc queries that you execute infrequently
- Connecting to one or more databases, transferring data between the database and external text files, and displaying information about a database
- Displaying system catalogs and the Information Schema
- Testing applications that you intend to store for use in a production environment
The DB-Access user interface also supports the following:
- Running statements interactively, discarding them after you achieve the desired results, or saving them in a file for repetitive execution
- Typing statements directly in the DB-Access text-entry screen or your preferred text editor
- Starting DB-Access in menu mode and selecting options from the menus
Enhancement to DB-Access
The -a command line option is new to the dbaccess command syntax.
Exit on first error (dbaccess –a)
Use the -a command line option to stop the process directly after the first error is encountered. Stopping a process from continuing after the first error can ensure greater database consistency. The following is an example:
Listing 1. Using the command line option to stop the process after the first error
dbaccess -a - test.sql > test.out 2>&1
cat test.sql
connect to ‘testdb’ user ‘informix’ using ‘new.pass’;
create table tab1 (cola int);
-- No exit on no rows found
select * from tab1;
insert into tab1 values(100);
-- Display rows from tab1
select * from tab1;
-- should exit out as tab3 does not exist
select * from tab3;
-- should not execute. should have already exited
-- as previous statement resulted in an error
create table tab4(col1 int);
close database;
cat test.out
Connected.
Table created.
cola
No rows found.
1 row(s) inserted.
cola
100
1 row(s) retrieved.
206: The specified table (tab3) is not in the database.
111: ISAM error: no record found.
Error in line 14
Near character position 18
Disconnected.
[1] + Done(134) dbaccess -a - new.sql > new.out 2>&1
444 Abort dbaccess |
In order to test the above example, you need to set certain environment variables, as follows:
- Install the database server.
- Open a command prompt window, and set the following environment variable:
- SET INFORMIXDIR=C:\Informix
- SET INFORMIXSERVER=myserver
- SET DBLANG=EN_US.CP1252 (Set this if the server is not on a Windows platform.)
- Set up the Global Language Support (GLS) locale, where language localization requires it (such as DB_LOCALE and CLIENT_LOCALE)
- Execute as follows:
-a - test.sql > test.out 2>&1
Make sure that there is a >space< after the '-' where the filename is specified.
Environment variables
You must have %INFORMIXDIR%\bin in your path if you use DB-Access on a Windows platform. Your operating system uses the path to locate the initialization script and the dbaccess executable.
Minimum System Requirements
- CSDK 2.81 TC2 and higher
- Win2K SP2 or higher
- This release has also been certified for Windows XP and Windows .NET Server
Installation Instructions
- Click the code icon at the top or bottom of the page to download the .zip file.
- Open a command prompt to the directory where the installer resides.
- If the environment variable INFORMIXDIR is set to the location of IBM Informix CSDK, run setup.bat. Otherwise, run setup.bat with the argument of the directory where IBM Informix CSDK or I-Connect is installed (for example, setup.bat C:\Informix)
Support
- This utility is available as-is. No additional support is provided.
Download | Name | Size | Download method |
|---|
| dbacc_2_psoft.zip | 1.5MB | FTP|HTTP |
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About the author | | | Ammu Soni is a Senior Quality Assurance Engineer who has worked on the Informix Dynamic Server for more than eight years. Ammu works on the Stress Testing team of IBM-Informix Dynamic Server, mainly involving Kernel and Backup-Restore Utilities. |
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