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<div class="chapter">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h1 class="title">
<a name="sqltool-chapt"></a>Chapter 1. SqlTool</h1>
</div>
<div>
<h3 class="subtitle">
<i>SqlTool Manual</i>
</h3>
</div>
<div>
<div class="authorgroup">
<div class="author">
<h3 class="author">
<span class="firstname">Blaine</span> <span class="surname">Simpson</span>
</h3>
<div class="affiliation">
<span class="orgname">HSQL Development Group<br>
</span>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<p class="releaseinfo">$Revision: 4940 $</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="pubdate">2012-08-06 00:15:58+0100</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="toc">
<p>
<b>Table of Contents</b>
</p>
<dl>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_tryit-sect">Try It</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_book_purpose-sect">Purpose, Coverage, Changes in Behavior</a></span>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N10128">Platforms and SqlTool versions covered</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_functional_changes-sect">Recent Functional Changes</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N1021A">New Features</a></span>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_baremin-sect">The Bare Minimum</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N10387">Quotes and Spaces</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N103A7">Embedding</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N103BC">Non-displayable Types</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N103DC">Compound commands or commands with semi-colons</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N103E5">Desktop shortcuts</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N10446">Loading sample data</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N10462">Satisfying SqlTool's CLASSPATH Requirements</a></span>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_olderaccess-sect">
Accessing older HSQLDB Databases with SqlTool</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N104BE">App-specific Classes, Embedding, and non-HyperSQL Databases</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N10505">Distributing SqlTool with your Apps</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N1052B">SqlTool Client PCs</a></span>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_auth-sect">RC File Authentication Setup</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_dsswitch-sect">Switching Data Sources</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_ilauth-sect">Using Inline RC Authentication</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_logging-sect">Logging</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_int-sect">Interactive Usage</a></span>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N10688">SqlTool Command-Line Editing</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N106AC">Command Types</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N106C5">Emulating Non-Interactive mode</a></span>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N106D1">Command Types</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N1071A">Special Commands</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N1081C">Edit Buffer / History Commands</a></span>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N108CD">Command History</a></span>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_interactive_pl_commands-sect">PL Commands</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_nonint-sect">Non-Interactive</a></span>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_sqlswitch-sect">Giving SQL on the Command Line</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N10A09">SQL Files</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_scripting-sect">Piping and shell scripting</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N10ABD">Automation</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N10AD0">Optimally Compatible SQL Files</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N10AE3">Comments</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N10AF0">Special Commands and Edit Buffer Commands in SQL Files</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N10B6B">Getting Interactive Functionality with SQL Files</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_charencoding-sect">
Character Encoding</a></span>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_report-sect">Generating Text or HTML Reports</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_binary_files-sect">
Storing and Retrieving Binary Files</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_pl-sect">SqlTool Procedural Language</a></span>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_nullempty-sect">Nulls and Empty Strings</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_variables-sect">Variables</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_macro-sect">Macros</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N10EF8">SqlTool Functions</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N10F25">PL Sample</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_logical-sect">Logical Expressions</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N11013">Mathematical Assignments</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N11076">Flow Control</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N110B6">PL Example</a></span>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_chunk-sect">Chunking</a></span>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N110DA">Why?</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N110EB">How?</a></span>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_raw-sect">Raw Mode</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_embedded-langs-sect">SQL/PSM, SQL/JRT, and PL/SQL</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_dsv-sect">
Delimiter-Separated-Value Imports and Exports</a></span>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N111A9">Simple DSV exports and imports using default settings</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#N111E4">Specifying queries and options</a></span>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_csv-sect">CSV Imports and Exports</a></span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="section"><a href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_unittest-sect">Unit Testing SqlTool</a></span>
</dt>
</dl>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="sqltool_tryit-sect"></a>Try It</h2>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
If you know how to type in a Java command at your shell command line,
and you know at least the most basic SQL commands, then you know
enough to benefit from SqlTool.
You can play with Java system properties, PL variables, math, and
other things by just executing
<a class="link" href="http://search.maven.org/remotecontent?filepath=org/hsqldb/sqltool/2.2.6/sqltool-2.2.6.jar" target="_top">this <code class="filename">sqltool-2.2.6.jar</code> file</a>.
But SqlTool was made for JDBC, so you should download HyperSQL to
have SqlTool automatically connect to a fully functional, pure Java
database; or obtain a JDBC driver for any other SQL database that you
have an account in.
</p>
<p>
If HyperSQL's <code class="filename">hsqldb.jar</code> resides in the same
directory as the SqlTool jar file, then you can connect up to a
HyperSQL instance from SqlTool just by specifying the JDBC URL, root
account user name of <code class="literal">SA</code> and empty password, with
the <code class="literal">\j</code> command.
See the
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_dsswitch-sect" title="Switching Data Sources">Switching Data Sources</a>
section below for details about <code class="literal">\j</code>.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="sqltool_book_purpose-sect"></a>Purpose, Coverage, Changes in Behavior</h2>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="note" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Note">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Note]" src="../images/db/note.png"></td><th align="left">Note</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
Due to many important improvements to SqlTool, both in terms of
stability and features, all users of SqlTool are advised to use the
latest version of SqlTool, even if your database instances run with an
older HSQLDB version.
How to do this is documented in the
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_olderaccess-sect" title="Accessing older HSQLDB Databases with SqlTool">
Accessing older HSQLDB Databases with SqlTool</a>
section below.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>
This document explains how to use SqlTool, the main purpose of
which is to read your SQL text file or stdin, and execute the SQL
commands therein against a JDBC database.
There are also a great number of features to facilitate both
interactive use and automation.
The following paragraphs explain in a general way why SqlTool is
better than any existing tool for text-mode interactive SQL work,
and for automated SQL tasks.
Two important benefits which SqlTool shares with other pure Java
JDBC tools is that users can use a consistent interface and
syntax to interact with a huge variety of databases-- any
database which supports JDBC; plus the tool itself runs on any
Java platform.
Instead of using <code class="filename">isql</code> for Sybase,
<code class="filename">psql</code> for Postgresql,
<code class="filename">Sql*plus</code> for Oracle, etc., you can
use SqlTool for all of them.
As far as I know, SqlTool is the only production-ready, pure
Java, command-line, generic JDBC client.
Several databases come with a command-line client with limited
JDBC abilities (usually designed for use with just their specific
database).
</p>
<div class="important" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Important: Use the In-Program Help!">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Important]" src="../images/db/important.png"></td><th align="left">Use the In-Program Help!</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
The SqlTool commands and settings are intuitive once you are
familiar with the usage idioms.
This Guide does not attempt to list every SqlTool command and
option available.
When you want to know what SqlTool commands or options are available
for a specific purpose, you need to list the commands of the
appropriate type with the relevant "?" command.
For example, as explained below, to see all Special commands, you
would run <code class="literal">\?</code>; and to see all DSV export options,
you run \x?.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>
SqlTool is purposefully not a Gui tool like Toad or DatabaseManager.
There are many use cases where a Gui SQL tool would be better.
Where automation is involved in any way, you really need a text
client to at least test things properly and usually to prototype
and try things out.
A command-line tool is really better for executing SQL scripts,
any form of automation, direct-to-file fetching, and remote client
usage.
To clarify this last, if you have to do your SQL client work on a
work server on the other side of a VPN connection, you will quickly
appreciate the speed difference between text data transmission
and graphical data transmission, even if using VNC or Remote Console.
Another case would be where you are doing some repetitive or
very structured work where variables or language features would
be useful.
Gui proponents may disagree with me, but scripting (of any sort)
is more efficient than repetitive copy & pasting with a Gui
editor.
SqlTool starts up very quickly, and it takes up a tiny fraction of
the RAM required to run a comparably complex Gui like Toad.
</p>
<p>
SqlTool is superior for interactive use because over many years it
has evolved lots of features proven to be efficient for day-to-day
use.
Four concise in-program help commands (<code class="literal">\?</code>,
<code class="literal">:?</code>, <code class="literal">*?</code>
and <code class="literal">/?</code>) list all
available commands of the corresponding type.
SqlTool doesn't support up-arrow or other OOB escapes (due to basic
Java I/O limitations), but it more than makes up for this limitation
with macros, user variables, command-line history and recall, and
command-line editing with extended Perl/Java regular expressions.
The \d commands deliver JDBC metadata information as consistently as
possible (in several cases, database-specific work-arounds are used
to obtain the underlying data even though the database doesn't
provide metadata according to the JDBC specs).
Unlike server-side language features, the same feature set works
for any database server.
Database access details may be supplied on the command line, but
day-to-day users will want to centralize JDBC connection details
into a single, protected RC file.
You can put connection details (username, password, URL, and other
optional settings) for scores of target databases into your RC file,
then connect to any of them whenever you want by just giving
SqlTool the ID ("urlid") for that database.
When you Execute SqlTool interactively, it behaves by default
exactly as you would want it to.
If errors occur, you are given specific error messages and you
can decide whether to roll back your session.
You can easily change this behavior to auto-commit,
exit-upon-error, etc., for the current session or for all
interactive invocations.
You can import or export delimiter-separated-value files.
If you need to run a specific statement repeatedly, perhaps changing
the WHERE clause each time, it is very simple to define a macro.
</p>
<p>
When you Execute SqlTool with a SQL script, it also behaves by
default exactly as you would want it to.
If any error is encountered, the connection will be rolled back,
then SqlTool will exit with an error exit value.
If you wish, you can detect and handle error (or other) conditions
yourself.
For scripts expected to produce errors (like many scripts provided
by database vendors), you can have SqlTool continue-upon-error.
For SQL script-writers, you will have access to portable scripting
features which you've had to live without until now.
You can use variables set on the command line or in your script.
You can handle specific errors based on the output of SQL commands
or of your variables.
You can chain SQL scripts, invoke external programs, dump data
to files, use prepared statements,
Finally, you have a procedural language with <code class="literal">if</code>,
<code class="literal">foreach</code>, <code class="literal">while</code>,
<code class="literal">continue</code>, and <code class="literal">break</code> statements.
</p>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="N10128"></a>Platforms and SqlTool versions covered</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
SqlTool runs on any Java 1.5 or later platform.
I know that SqlTool works well with Sun and OpenJDK JVMs.
I haven't run other vendors' JVMs in years (IBM, JRockit, etc.).
As my use with OpenJDK proves that I don't depend on Sun-specific
classes, I expect it to work well with other (1.5-compatible) Java
implementations.
</p>
<p>
SqlTool no longer writes any files without being explicitly
instructed to.
Therefore, it should work fine on read-only systems, and you'll
never have orphaned temp files left around.
</p>
<p>
The command-line examples in this chapter work as given on all
platforms (if you substitute in a normalized path in place of
<code class="literal">$HSQLDB_HOME</code>), except where noted otherwise.
When doing any significant command-line work on Windows
(especially shell scripting), you're better off to completely
avoid paths with spaces or funny characters.
If you can't avoid it, use double-quotes and expect problems.
As with any Java program, file or directory paths on the command
line after "java" can use forward slashes instead of back slashes
(this goes for System properties and the
<code class="varname">CLASSPATH</code> variable too).
I use forward slashes because they can be used consistently, and
I don't have to contort my fingers to type them :).
</p>
<p>
If you are using SqlTool from a HyperSQL distribution of version
2.2.5 or earlier, you should use the documentation with that
distribution, because this manual documents many new features,
several significant changes to interactive-only commands, and
a few changes effecting backwards-compatibility (see next
section about that).
This document is now updated for the current versions of SqlTool
and SqlFile at the time I am writing this (versions
4720 and 4863 correspondingly-- SqlFile is the
class which actually processes the SQL content for SqlTool).
Therefore, if you are using a version of SqlTool or SqlFile that
is more than a couple revisions greater, you should find a newer
version of this document.
(The imprecision is due to content-independent revision increments
at build time, and the likelihood of one or two
behavior-independent bug fixes after public releases).
The startup banner will report both versions when you run SqlTool
interactively.
(Dotted version numbers of SqlTool and SqlFile definitely indicate
ancient versions).
</p>
<p>
This guide covers SqlTool as bundled with HSQLDB after 2.2.5.
<a href="#ftn.samplelocFn" class="footnote"><sup class="footnote"><a name="samplelocFn"></a>[1]</sup></a>
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="sqltool_functional_changes-sect"></a>Recent Functional Changes</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>This section lists changes to SqlTool since the last
major release of HSQLDB which may effect the portability
of SQL scripts.
For this revision of this document, this list consists of
script-impacting changes made to SqlTool
<span class="emphasis"><em>after</em></span> the final 2.0.0 HyperSQL release.
</p>
<div class="itemizedlist">
<ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; ">
<li class="listitem">
<p class="simpara">
SqlTool always has treated unset PL variables equal to
null-valued variables, and this is not changing.
There is no distinction between <span class="emphasis"><em>unset</em></span>
and <span class="emphasis"><em>null-valued</em></span>.
But before revision 4423 (i.e. pre-HyperSQL 2.2.6),
SqlTool almost always treated variable value of empty
String (i.e. what is between these two quotes: "") as
equivalent to null/unset.
The most common case where a user would see this was in the
command to <span class="emphasis"><em>unset</em></span> a PL variable:
<code class="literal">* VARNAME =</code>.
Though your command says to assign the value of the empty
string to <code class="varname">VARNAME</code>, varname would unset it
instead (which latter is equivalent to assigning null to it).
</p>
<p class="simpara">
SqlTool achieves several new benefits by purposefully
assigning the empty string for some purposes, and
distinctly unsetting for other purposes.
One example of this is the new consistent and robust handling
of the PL variable <code class="varname">?</code>.
Now, when <code class="varname">?</code> is unset (aka
<span class="emphasis"><em>null</em></span>), it always mean that the last
SQL command failed.
If this variable has the value of the empty string, it means
that the last cell returned had value of the empty string,
or the <code class="literal">?</code> was reset (for example due to
SqlTool startup).
</p>
<p class="simpara">
When you run SqlTool interactively, you will see warnings
about setting PL variables to nothing.
If you don't do anything involving assignment or testing of
unset or empty variables, then skip this item and ignore the
new warnings.
In an upcoming release, by default, setting a PL variable to
nothing, like <code class="literal">* name = Bruno</code> will no
longer unset/remove the variable but will instead assign an
empty-string value.
There are important use cases for empty-string values.
In new scripts and interactively, from now on you should use
the new PL command "<code class="literal">* - VARNAME</code>" if you
really want to unset a variable.
If you do not set Java system property
'<code class="literal">sqltool.REMOVE_EMPTY_VARS</code>',
everything behaves just like before (except that you will be
able to use the new <code class="literal">* - VARNAME</code> command),
but you will get the warnings.
But if you do anything involving assignment or testing of
unset or empty variables, you need to set this property.
</p>
<p class="simpara">
For legacy scripts, you should set
'<code class="literal">sqltool.REMOVE_EMPTY_VARS</code>' to
<code class="literal">true</code> to quiet the messages, retaining the
old behavior and protecting from the behavior change in the
future.
For maintained or new scripts, set the value of the property
to <code class="literal">false</code>, and only use
"<code class="literal">* - VARNAME</code>" to unset variables.
</p>
<p class="simpara">
<code class="literal">sqltool.REMOVE_EMPTY_VARS</code> only effects the
assignment operation <code class="literal">* VARNAME =</code>.
Regardless of this setting, SqlTool itself will assign some
SqlTool PL variables to the empty string and to null,
and _ will assign nulls if the next call value retrieve is
null,
variables which have never been set will be equal to null,
and you can use command line parameters
<code class="literal">-P</code> or <code class="literal">--setVar</code> to
assign PL variables to the empty String.
(For example
"<code class="literal">java -jar .../sqltool.jar -Pvarname= urlid script.sql</code>").
</p>
</li>
<li class="listitem">
DSV input now accepts JDBC Timestamp format with date and
optionally time of day.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
The simplest PL command, just "<code class="literal">*</code>", has
been deprecated. It is now useless since the only time
where variables are not expanded are in SQL commands if no
user variable has been set.
Since you obviously must set at least one variable value if
you intend for variable substitution to succeed, the purpose
of the old <code class="literal">*</code> command is satisfied
intuitively and automatically now.
(That purpose being to prevent modification of SQL text
without the operator's knowledge).
</li>
<li class="listitem">
The <code class="literal">*</code> command (just plain
"<code class="literal">*</code>") has
been removed because it is no longer necessary.
(See item on it in the previous section of this manual).
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Bugs in variable scoping have been fixed.
All variables are global and shared among
<code class="filename">auto.sql</code>, all
command-line and nested SQL scripts, and interactive shells.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
A bug has been fixed so that SqlTool
system PL variables (with names starting with "*") are now
honored no matter how or where the variable value was set.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Variables with non-alpha-numerical characters, and those
beginning with digits have been deprecated but are still
supported for now.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
The data (and just the data) of HTML reports has remained
the same, but the whole system has been drastically
modernized and enhanced.
You may notice new special command <code class="literal">\pr</code>.
This is a <code class="literal">\p</code> variant applicable only
to HTML mode, telling SqlTool to treat the expression as
Raw, so the author can type in HTML, JavaScript or other
text not to be formatted.
HTML model also gets its own
<code class="varname">*NULL_REP_HTML</code> setting distinct from
<code class="varname">*NULL_REP_TOKEN</code>.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
For consistency, the \H toggle switch has been superseded
with <code class="literal">\h true|false</code>>
The old variants are still supported.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Command <code class="literal">/= name :...</code> has been
superseded by the more consistent (with our other commands)
<code class="literal">/: name...</code>.
The old variant is still supported.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Removed support for SqlTool system PL variable names
deprecated years ago.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Idiosyncratic <code class="literal">*</code> option to
<code class="literal">\m</code> is no longer necessary (though
still supported).
SqlTool system variable
<code class="varname">*DSV_SKIP_PREFIX</code> may now be
set to the empty string to indicate no skipping.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Import reject report files were being retained on Windows,
even when there were not rejected records.
This bug has been fixed.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
PL variables <code class="varname">*NULL</code> and
<code class="literal">NULL</code> are reserved and may be referenced
but not assigned to.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
The special PL variable <code class="literal">?</code> is now
updated rigorously. It will be null only if the last
SQL command that was run failed.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
The special PL variable <code class="literal">?</code> is now
listed in the output of <code class="literal">* list</code>
and <code class="literal">* listvalues</code> commands.
(Unless at the time it is unset/null, of course, and in
this case the absence of <code class="literal">?</code> indicates
that it is unset.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
The look of DSV import reject reports has changed, and the
name of user-supplied (optional) CSS file has been changed.
(See following section about why).
</li>
<li class="listitem">
The <code class="literal">\d tableLikeObject</code> command output
now has 2 more columns, to report precision and scale.
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="N1021A"></a>New Features</h3>
</div>
<div>
<h4 class="subtitle">Since 2.0.0 final</h4>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>To reduce duplication, new features are listed in the
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_functional_changes-sect" title="Recent Functional Changes">Recent Functional Changes</a> section are not repeated
here, so check that list too.
</p>
<div class="itemizedlist">
<ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; ">
<li class="listitem">
You can (and if you use nested scripts, you probably
<span class="emphasis"><em>should</em></span>) prefix relative paths given
inside of SqlTool with <code class="literal">@/</code>.
This makes them relative to the parent script directory
instead of to the invocation current directory.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
More accepting of dates and times in DSV imports.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
CSV exporting and importing with double-quote
delimiting and escaping.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
New "<code class="literal">* - VARNAME</code>" PL command added to
explicitly unset/remove a variable.
Definitely read the first item in the
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_functional_changes-sect" title="Recent Functional Changes">Recent Functional Changes</a> section.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Added integer math feature very similar to that of
Bash and Korn shells.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Added some new logical operators
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Added new : variant for exporting (\x and \xq), which
uses a query from the edit buffer.
This provides direct support for exports using long,
multi-line queries.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
SqlTool functions have been implemented.
These are just / macros which take positional parameters.
They can be distinguished from regular macros by having
name like <code class="literal">this()</code>, and being invoked
like <code class="literal">this(with, parameters)</code>.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
We have provided multiple ways to accommodate command-line
<span class="emphasis"><em>inlineRc</em></span>s and variable assignments
where the values contain commas, and generally added
flexibility to the latter.
In both cases, commas may be escaped with the backslash
character.
New switch -p (also usable as -P) is provided as an easier
way to eliminate the delimiter issue.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Multiple --sql, -p, and -P arguments to SqlTool are now
honored, and they are evaluated in specified order.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Added automatically-assigned SqlTool system PL variables
<code class="varname">*START_TIME</code>
and <code class="varname">*REVISION</code>.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Added optional SqlTool system PL variable
<code class="varname">*TIMESTAMP_FORMAT</code>, which, when set
causes new SqlTool system PL variable
<code class="varname">*TIMESTAMP</code> to be automatically set to
the time when this (latter) variable is referenced.
Unlike <code class="varname">*START_TIME</code>, the
<code class="varname">*TIMESTAMP_FORMAT</code> +
<code class="varname">*TIMESTAMP</code> combination allows the user
to specify exactly how to display the time and/or date.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
The DSV import reject report has been refactored to use the
same templating and substitution used by the new HTML
reports.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
The SqlTool unit test system has been ported from Bash to
Groovy wrapped by Gradle.
The system requirements have thereby been reduced from
requiring a Bash shell to just requiring a Java 6 JRE.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Added an inline/shortcut <code class="literal">*if</code> syntax
like this:
<code class="literal">* if (*x == *b) \p Any 1-lne statement</code>.
People who value conciseness, like myself, will appreciate
this.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Added <code class="literal">* else</code> statement to accompany
<code class="literal">* if</code> statement.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Added traditional mathematical <code class="literal">* if</code>
statement. Run <code class="literal">*?</code> to see syntax.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Added iteration over query result set rows with loop
statement <code class="literal">* forrows</code>.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Added statement <code class="literal">* return</code> as a more
intuitive alias for <code class="literal">* break file</code>.
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="sqltool_baremin-sect"></a>The Bare Minimum</h2>
</div>
<div>
<h3 class="subtitle">The Bare Minimum You Need to Know to Run SqlTool</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="warning" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Warning">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Warning]" src="../images/db/warning.png"></td><th align="left">Warning</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
If you are using an Oracle database server, it will commit your
current transaction if you cleanly disconnect, regardless of
whether you have set auto-commit or not.
This will occur if you exit SqlTool (or any other client) in
the normal way (as opposed to killing the process or using
Ctrl-C, etc.).
This is mentioned in this section only for brevity, so I don't
need to mention it in the main text in the many places where
auto-commit is discussed.
This behavior has nothing to do with SqlTool.
It is a quirk of Oracle.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>
If you want to use SqlTool, then you either have an SQL text file,
or you want to interactively type in SQL commands.
If neither case applies to you, then you are probably
looking at the wrong program.
</p>
<div class="procedure">
<a name="N102B1"></a>
<p class="title">
<b>Procedure 1.1. To run SqlTool...</b>
</p>
<ol class="procedure" type="1">
<li class="step">
<p>
Copy the file
<code class="filename"><a class="filename" href="filelinks-app.html#sqltool.rc-link">
sample/sqltool.rc</a></code>
<a href="sqltool-chapt.html#ftn.samplelocFn" class="footnoteref"><sup class="footnoteref">[1]</sup></a>
of your HyperSQL distribution to your home directory and
secure access to it if your computer is accessible
to anybody else (most likely from the network).
This file will work as-is for a Memory Only database
instance; or if your target is a HyperSQL Server
running on your local computer with default settings
and the password for the "SA" account is blank
(the SA password is blank when new HyperSQL database
instances are created).
Edit the file if you need to change the target Server URL,
username, password, character set, JDBC driver, or TLS
trust store as documented in the
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_auth-sect" title="RC File Authentication Setup">RC File Authentication Setup</a>
section.
You could, alternatively, use the
<code class="literal">--inlineRc</code> command-line switch or the
\j special command to connect up to a data source, as
documented below.
</p>
</li>
<li class="step">
<p>
Find out where your <code class="filename">sqltool.jar</code> file
resides.
It typically resides at
<code class="varname">HSQLDB_HOME</code><code class="filename">/lib/sqltool.jar</code>
where <code class="varname">HSQLDB_HOME</code> is the
"hsqldb" directory inside the root level of your HyperSQL
software installation.
(For example, if you extract
<code class="filename">hsqldb-9.1.0.zip</code> into
<code class="filename">c:\temp</code>,
your <code class="varname">HSQLDB_HOME</code> would be
<code class="filename">c:/temp/hsqldb-9.1.0/hsqldb</code>.
Your file may also have a version label in the file name,
like <code class="filename">sqltool-1.2.3.4.jar</code>.
The forward slashes work just fine on Windows).
For this reason, I'm going to use
"$HSQLDB_HOME/lib/sqltool.jar" as the path to
<code class="filename">sqltool.jar</code> for my examples, but
understand that you need to use the actual path to your
own <code class="filename">sqltool.jar</code> file.
(Unix users may set a real env. variable if they wish,
in which case the examples may be used verbatim;
Window users may do the same, but will need to dereference
the variables like <code class="literal">%THIS%</code> instead of
like <code class="literal">$THIS</code>).
</p>
<div class="warning" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Warning">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Warning]" src="../images/db/warning.png"></td><th align="left">Warning</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
My examples assume there are no spaces or funky characters
in your file paths.
This avoids bugs with the Windows cmd shell and makes for
simpler syntax all-around.
If you insist on using directories with spaces or shell
metacharacters (including standard Windows home directories
like <code class="filename">C:\Documents and Settings\blaine</code>),
you will need to double-quote arguments containing these
paths.
(On UNIX you can alternatively use single-quotes to avoid
variable dereferencing at the same time).
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
</li>
<li class="step">
<p>
If you are just starting with SqlTool, you are best off
running your SqlTool command from a shell
<span class="emphasis"><em>command-line</em></span> (as opposed to by
using icons or the Windows'
<span class="guimenuitem">Start/Run...</span> or
<span class="guimenuitem">Start/Start Search</span>).
This way, you will be sure to see error messages if you
type the command wrong or if SqlTool can't start up for
some reason.
On recent versions of Windows, you can get a shell by
running <code class="literal">cmd</code> from
<span class="guimenuitem">Start/Run...</span> or
<span class="guimenuitem">Start/Start Search</span>).
On UNIX or Linux, any real or virtual terminal will work.
</p>
<p>
On your shell command line, run
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="screen"> java -jar $HSQLDB_HOME/lib/sqltool.jar --help</pre>
</div>
<p>
to see what command-line arguments are available.
Note that you don't need to worry about setting the
<code class="varname">CLASSPATH</code>
when you use the <code class="literal">-jar</code> switch
to <code class="filename">java</code>.
</p>
<p>
To run SqlTool without a JDBC connection, run
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="screen"> java -jar $HSQLDB_HOME/lib/sqltool.jar</pre>
</div>
<p>
You won't be able to execute any SQL, but you can play with
the SqlTool interface (including using PL features).
</p>
<p>
To execute SQL, you'll need the classes for the target
database's JDBC driver (and database engine classes for
<em class="glossterm">in-process</em> databases).
As this section is titled <span class="emphasis"><em>The Bare Minimum</em></span>,
I'll just say that if you are running SqlTool from a HyperSQL
product installation, you are all set to connect to any kind of
HyperSQL database.
This is because SqlTool will look for the file
<code class="filename">hsqldb.jar</code> in the same directory as
<code class="filename">sqltool.jar</code>, and that file contains all of
the needed classes.
(SqlTool supports all JDBC databases and does not require a
HyperSQL installation, but these cases would take us beyond
<span class="emphasis"><em>the bare minimum</em></span>).
So, with <code class="filename">hsqldb.jar</code> in place, you can run
commands like
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="screen"> java -jar $HSQLDB_HOME/lib/sqltool.jar mem</pre>
</div>
<p>
for interactive use, or
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="screen"> java -jar $HSQLDB_HOME/lib/sqltool.jar --sql="SQL statement;" mem</pre>
</div>
<p>
or
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="screen"> java -jar $HSQLDB_HOME/lib/sqltool.jar mem filepath1.sql...</pre>
</div>
<p>
where <code class="literal">mem</code> is an
<span class="emphasis"><em>urlid</em></span>,
and the following arguments are paths to text SQL files.
For the filepaths, you can use whatever wildcards your
operating system shell supports.
</p>
<p>
The <span class="emphasis"><em>urlid</em></span> <code class="literal">mem
</code>in these commands is a key
into your RC file, as explained in the
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_auth-sect" title="RC File Authentication Setup">RC File Authentication Setup</a> section.
Since this is a <em class="glossterm">mem:</em> type catalog,
you can use SqlTool
with this urlid immediately with no database setup
whatsoever (however, you can't persist any changes that
you make to this database).
The sample sqltool.rc file also defines the urlid
"localhost-sa" for a local HyperSQL Listener.
At the end of this section, I explain how you can load
some sample data to play with, if you want to.
</p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
<div class="tip" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Tip">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Tip]" src="../images/db/tip.png"></td><th align="left">Tip</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
If SqlTool fails to connect to the specified urlid and you don't
know why, add the invocation parameter <code class="literal">--debug</code>.
This will cause SqlTool to display a stack trace from where the
connection attempt fails.
(If a connection attempt fails with the interactive \j command,
details will always be displayed).
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<div class="important" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Important: You are responsible for Commit behavior">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Important]" src="../images/db/important.png"></td><th align="left">You are responsible for Commit behavior</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
SqlTool does not <span class="emphasis"><em>commit</em></span> SQL changes by default.
(You can use the <code class="literal">--autoCommit</code> command-line
switch to have it auto-commit).
This leaves it to the user's discretion whether to commit or
rollback their modifications.
If you do want your changes committed, remember to run \= before
quitting SqlTool.
(Most databases also support the SQL command
<code class="literal">commit;</code>),
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>
If you put a file named <code class="filename">auto.sql</code> into your
home directory, this file will be executed automatically every
time that you run SqlTool interactively (unless you invoke with
the <code class="literal">--noAutoFile</code> switch).
I did say <span class="emphasis"><em>interactively</em></span>: If you want to
execute this file when you execute SQL scripts from the command
line, then your script must use
<code class="literal">\i ${user.home}/auto.sql</code> or similar to invoke
it explicitly.
</p>
<p>
To use a JDBC Driver other than the HyperSQL driver, you can't use
the <code class="literal">-jar</code> switch because you need to modify the
classpath.
You must add the <code class="filename">sqltool.jar</code> file and your JDBC
driver classes to your classpath,
and you must tell SqlTool what the JDBC driver class name is.
The latter can be accomplished by either using the "--driver"
switch, or setting "driver" in your config file.
The <a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_auth-sect" title="RC File Authentication Setup">RC File Authentication Setup</a> section.
explains the second method. Here's an example of the first method
(after you have set the classpath appropriately).
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="screen">java org.hsqldb.cmdline.SqlTool --driver=oracle.jdbc.OracleDriver urlid</pre>
</div>
<div class="tip" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Tip">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Tip]" src="../images/db/tip.png"></td><th align="left">Tip</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
If the tables of query output on your screen are all messy
because of lines wrapping, the best and easiest solution
is usually to resize your terminal emulator window to make it
wider.
(With some terms you click & drag the frame edges to resize,
with others you use a menu system where you can enter the number
of columns).
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="N10387"></a>Quotes and Spaces</h2>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
Single and double-quotes are not treated specially by SqlTool.
This makes SqlTool more intuitive than most shell languages, ensures
that quotes sent to the database engine are not adulterated, and
eliminates the need for somehow <span class="emphasis"><em>escaping</em></span> quote
characters.
</p>
<p>
Line delimiters are special, as that is the primary means for SqlTool
to tell when a command is finished (requiring combination with
semi-colon to support multi-line SQL statements).
Spaces and tabs are preserved inside of your strings and variable
values, but are trimmed from the beginning in nearly all cases
(such space having very rare usefulness).
The cases where leading whitespace is preserved exactly as specified
in your strings are the : commands (including
<code class="literal">* VARNAME :</code>,
<code class="literal">/: VARNAME</code>, <code class="literal">\x :</code>, and
<code class="literal">\xq :</code>).
</p>
<p>
So, if you write the SQL command
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="programlisting">INSERT into t values ('one '' and '' two');</pre>
</div>
<p> or the SqlTool print command
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="programlisting">\p A message for my 'Greatest... fan'</pre>
</div>
<p>
you just type exactly what you want to send to the database, or
what you want displayed.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="N103A7"></a>Embedding</h2>
</div>
<div>
<h3 class="subtitle">Using SqlTool to execute SQL files from your own Java
code</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
To repeat what is stated in the JavaDoc for the
<code class="classname"><a class="classname" href="filelinks-app.html#SqlTool.html-link">SqlTool</a></code>
class itself:
<span class="emphasis"><em>
Programmatic users will usually want to use the
objectMain(String[]) method if they want arguments and behavior
exactly like command-line SqlTool. If you don't need invocation
parameter parsing, <code class="filename">auto.sql</code> execution, etc.,
you will have more control and efficiency by using the SqlFile
class directly. The file
<code class="filename"><a class="filename" href="filelinks-app.html#SqlFileEmbedder.java-link">
src/org/hsqldb/sample/SqlFileEmbedder.java</a></code>
in the HyperSQL distribution provides an example for this latter
strategy.
</em></span>
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="N103BC"></a>Non-displayable Types</h2>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
There are some SQL types which SqlTool (being a text-based
program) can't display properly.
This includes the SQL types <code class="literal">BLOB</code>,
<code class="literal">JAVA_OBJECT</code>, <code class="literal">STRUCT</code>,
and <code class="literal">OTHER</code>.
When you run a query that returns any of these, SqlTool will
save the very first such value obtained to the binary buffer
and will not display any output from this query.
You can then save the binary value to a file, as explained in the
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_binary_files-sect" title="Storing and Retrieving Binary Files">
Storing and Retrieving Binary Files</a>
section.
</p>
<p>
There are other types, such as <code class="literal">BINARY</code>, which
JDBC can make displayable (by using ResultSet.getString()), but
which you may very well want to retrieve in raw binary format.
You can use the \b command to retrieve any-column-type-at-all
in raw binary format (so you can later store the value to a
binary file).
</p>
<p>
Another restriction which all text-based database clients have
is the practical inability for the user to type in binary data
such as photos, audio streams, and serialized Java objects.
You can use SqlTool to load any binary object into a database
by telling SqlTool to get the insert/update datum from a file.
This is also explained in the
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_binary_files-sect" title="Storing and Retrieving Binary Files">
Storing and Retrieving Binary Files</a>
section.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="N103DC"></a>Compound commands or commands with semi-colons</h2>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
See the
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_chunk-sect" title="Chunking">Chunking</a>
section if you need to execute any compound SQL commands or SQL
commands containing non-escaped/quoted semi-colons.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="N103E5"></a>Desktop shortcuts</h2>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
Desktop shortcuts and quick launch icons are useful, especially
if you often run SqlTool with the same set of arguments.
It's really easy to set up several of them-- one for each
way that you invoke SqlTool (i.e., each one would start
SqlTool with all the arguments for one of your typical startup
needs).
One typical setup is to have one shortcut for each database
account which you normally use (use a different
<code class="literal">urlid</code> argument in each shortcut's
<span class="guilabel">Target</span> specification.
</p>
<p>
Desktop icon setup varies depending on your Desktop manager,
of course.
I'll explain how to set up a SqlTool startup icon in Windows
XP.
Linux and Mac users should be able to take it from there, since
it's easier with the common Linux and Mac desktops.
</p>
<div class="procedure">
<a name="N103F2"></a>
<p class="title">
<b>Procedure 1.2. Creating a Desktop Shortcut for SqlTool</b>
</p>
<ol class="procedure" type="1">
<li class="step">
<p>
Right click in the main Windows background.
</p>
</li>
<li class="step">
<p>
<span class="guimenuitem">New</span>
</p>
</li>
<li class="step">
<p>
<span class="guimenuitem">Shortcut</span>
</p>
</li>
<li class="step">
<p>
<span class="guibutton">Browse</span>
</p>
</li>
<li class="step">
<p>
Navigate to where your good JRE lives. For recent Sun
JRE's, it installs to
<code class="filename">C:\Program Files\Java\*\bin</code>
by default (the * will be a JDK or JRE identifier and
version number).
</p>
</li>
<li class="step">
<p>
Select <code class="filename">java.exe</code>.
</p>
</li>
<li class="step">
<p>
<span class="guibutton">OK</span>
</p>
</li>
<li class="step">
<p>
<span class="guimenuitem">Next</span>
</p>
</li>
<li class="step">
<p>
Enter any name
</p>
</li>
<li class="step">
<p>
<span class="guimenuitem">Finish</span>
</p>
</li>
<li class="step">
<p>
Right click the new icon.
</p>
</li>
<li class="step">
<p>
<span class="guimenuitem">Properties</span>
</p>
</li>
<li class="step">
<p>
Edit the <span class="guilabel">Target</span> field.
</p>
</li>
<li class="step">
<p>
Leave the path to java.exe exactly as it is, including the
quotes, but append to what is there.
Beginning with a space, enter the command-line that you
want run.
</p>
</li>
<li class="step">
<p>
<span class="guibutton">Change Icon...</span> to a pretty icon.
</p>
</li>
<li class="step">
<p>
If you want a quick-launch icon instead of (or in addition
to) a desktop shortcut icon, click and drag it to your
quick launch bar. (You may or may not need to edit the
Windows Toolbar properties to let you add new items).
Postnote: Quick launch setup has become more idiosyncratic
on the more recent versions of Windows, sometimes requiring
esoteric hacks to make them in some cases.
So, if the instructions here don't work, you'll have to seek
help elsewhere.
</p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="N10446"></a>Loading sample data</h2>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
If you want some sample database objects and data to play
with, execute the
<code class="filename"><a class="filename" href="filelinks-app.html#sampledata.sql-link">
sample/sampledata.sql</a></code> SQL file
<a href="sqltool-chapt.html#ftn.samplelocFn" class="footnoteref"><sup class="footnoteref">[1]</sup></a>.
To separate the sample data from your regular data, you can
put it into its own schema by running this before you import:
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="programlisting"> CREATE SCHEMA sampledata AUTHORIZATION dba;
SET SCHEMA sampledata;</pre>
</div>
<p>
Run it like this from an SqlTool session
</p>
<pre class="programlisting"> \i HSQLDB_HOME/sample/sampledata.sql</pre>
<p>
where <span class="bold"><strong>HSQLDB_HOME</strong></span> is the
base directory of your HSQLDB software installation
<a href="sqltool-chapt.html#ftn.samplelocFn" class="footnoteref"><sup class="footnoteref">[1]</sup></a>.
</p>
<p>
For memory-only databases, you'll need to run this every
time that you run SqlTool.
For other (persistent) databases, the data will reside in
your database until you drop the tables.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="N10462"></a>Satisfying SqlTool's CLASSPATH Requirements</h2>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
As discussed earlier, only the single file
<code class="filename">sqltool.jar</code> is required to run SqlTool (the file
name may contain a version label like
<code class="filename">sqltool-1.2.3.4.jar</code>).
But it's useless as an SQL <span class="emphasis"><em>Tool</em></span> unless you can
connect to a JDBC data source, and for that you need the target
database's JDBC driver in the classpath.
For <em class="glossterm">in-process</em> catalogs, you'll also need the
database engine classes in the CLASSPATH.
The <a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_baremin-sect" title="The Bare Minimum">The Bare Minimum</a>
section explains that the easiest way to use SqlTool with any HyperSQL
database is to just use <code class="filename">sqltool.jar</code> in-place where
it resides in a HyperSQL installation.
This section explains how to satisfy the CLASSPATH requirements for
other setups and use cases.
</p>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="sqltool_olderaccess-sect"></a>
Accessing older HSQLDB Databases with SqlTool</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
If you are using SqlTool to access non-HSQLDB database(s), then you
should use the latest and greatest-- just
grab the newest public release of SqlTool (like from the latest
public HyperSQL release) and skip this subsection.
</p>
<p>
You are strongly encouraged to use the latest SqlTool release to
access older HSQLDB databases, to enjoy greatly improved SqlTool
robustness and features.
It is very easy to do this.
</p>
<div class="procedure">
<ol class="procedure" type="1">
<li class="step">
<p>
Obtain the latest <code class="filename">sqltool.jar</code> file.
One way to obtain the latest <code class="filename">sqltool.jar</code> file
is to download the latest HyperSQL distribution and extract that
single file
</p>
</li>
<li class="step">
<p>
Place (or copy) your new <code class="filename">sqltool.jar</code> file
right alongside the <code class="filename">hsqldb.jar</code> file for
your target database version.
If you don't have a local copy of the
<code class="filename">hsqldb.jar</code> file for your target database,
just copy it from your database server, or download the full
distribution for that server version and extract it.
</p>
</li>
<li class="step">
<p>
<span class="emphasis"><em>
(If you have used older versions of SqlTool before, notice
that you now invoke SqlTool by specifying the
<code class="filename">sqltool.jar</code> file instead of the
<code class="filename">hsqldb.jar</code>).
</em></span>
If your target database is a previous 2.x version of HyperSQL,
then you are finished and can use the new SqlTool for your older
database. Users upgrading from a pre-2.x version please
continue...
</p>
<p>
Run SqlTool like this.
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="screen"> java -jar path/to/sqltool.jar --driver=org.hsqldb.jdbcDriver...</pre>
</div>
<p>
where you specify the pre-2.x JDBC driver name
<code class="classname">org.hsqldb.jdbcDriver</code>.
Give any other SqlTool parameters as you usually would.
</p>
<p>
Once you have verified that you can access your database using
the <code class="literal">--driver</code> parameter as explained above,
edit your <code class="filename">sqltool.rc</code> file, and add a
new line
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="programlisting"> driver org.hsqldb.jdbcDriver</pre>
</div>
<p>
after each urlid that is for a pre-2.x database.
Once you do this, you can invoke SqlTool as usual (i.e. you
no longer need the <code class="literal">--driver</code>
argument for your invocations).
</p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
<p>
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="N104BE"></a>App-specific Classes, Embedding, and non-HyperSQL Databases</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
For these situations, you need to add your custom, third-party, or
SQL driver classes to your Java CLASSPATH.
Java doesn't support adding arbitrary elements to the classpath when
you use the <code class="literal">-jar</code>, so you must set a classpath
containing <code class="filename">sqltool.jar</code> plus whatever else you
need, then invoke SqlTool without the <code class="literal">-jar</code> switch,
as briefly described at the end of the
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_baremin-sect" title="The Bare Minimum">The Bare Minimum</a>
section.
For embedded apps, invoke your own main class instead of SqlTool, and
you can invoke <code class="classname">SqlTool</code> or
<code class="classname">SqlFile</code> from your code base.
</p>
<p>
To customize the classpath,
you need to set up your classpath by using your
operating system or shell variable <code class="varname">CLASSPATH</code> or
by using the <code class="filename">java</code> switch <code class="literal">-cp</code>
(or the equivalent <code class="literal">-classpath</code>).
I'm not going to take up space here to explain how to set up a
Java CLASSPATH. That is a platform-dependent task that is
documented well in tons of Java introductions and tutorials.
What I'm responsible for telling you is <span class="emphasis"><em>what</em></span>
you need to add to your classpath.
For the non-embedded case where you have set up your CLASSPATH
environmental variable, you would invoke SqlTool like this.
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="screen"> java org.hsqldb.cmdline.SqlTool ...</pre>
</div>
<p>
If you are using the <code class="literal">-cp</code> switch instead of a
<code class="varname">CLASSPATH</code> variable, stick it after
<code class="literal">java</code>.
After "<code class="literal">SqlTool</code>", give any SqlTool parameters
exactly as you would put after
<code class="literal">java -jar .../sqltool.jar</code> if you didn't need to
customize the CLASSPATH.
You can specify a JDBC driver class to use either with the
<code class="literal">--driver</code> switch to SqlTool, or in your
RC file stanza (the last method is usually more convenient).
</p>
<p>
Note that without the <code class="literal">-jar</code> switch, SqlTool will
still automatically pull in HyperSQL JDBC driver or engine classes
from HyperSQL jar files in the same directory.
It's often a good practice to minimize your runtime classpath.
To prevent the possibility of pulling in classes from other HyperSQL
jar files, just copy <code class="filename">sqltool.jar</code> to some other
directory (which does not contain other HyperSQL jar files) and put
the path to that one in your classpath.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="N10505"></a>Distributing SqlTool with your Apps</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
You can distribute SqlTool along with your application, for
standalone or embedded invocation.
For embedded use, you will need to customize the classpath as
discussed in the previous item.
Either way, you should minimize your application footprint by
distributing only those HyperSQL jar files needed by your app.
You will obviously need <code class="filename">sqltool.jar</code> if you will
use the <code class="classname">SqlTool</code> or
<code class="classname">SqlFile</code> class in any way.
If your app will only connect to external HyperSQL listeners, then
build and include <code class="filename">hsqljdbc.jar</code>.
If your app will also <span class="emphasis"><em>run</em></span> a HyperSQL Listener,
you'll need to include <code class="filename">hsqldb.jar</code>.
If your app will connect directly to a
<em class="glossterm">in-process</em> catalog, then include
<code class="filename">hsqldbmain.jar</code>.
Note that you never need to include more than one of
<code class="filename">hsqldb.jar</code>, <code class="filename">hsqldbmain.jar</code>,
<code class="filename">hsqljdbc.jar</code>, since the former jars include
everything in the following jars.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="N1052B"></a>SqlTool Client PCs</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
If you just want to be able to run SqlTool (interactively or
non-interactively) on a PC, and have no need for documentation, then
it's usually easiest to just copy
<code class="filename">sqltool.jar</code> and <code class="filename">hsqldb.jar</code>
to the PCs (plus JDBC driver jars for any other target databases).
If you want to minimize what you distribute, then build and
distribute <code class="filename">hsqljdbc.jar</code> or
<code class="filename">hsqldbmain.jar</code> instead of
<code class="filename">hsqldb.jar</code>, according to the criteria listed in
the previous sub-section.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="sqltool_auth-sect"></a>RC File Authentication Setup</h2>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
RC file authentication setup is accomplished by creating a text
RC configuration file.
In this section, when I say <span class="emphasis"><em>configuration</em></span>
or <span class="emphasis"><em>config</em></span> file, I mean an RC configuration
file.
RC files can be used by any JDBC client program that uses the
org.hsqldb.util.RCData class-- this includes
SqlTool, DatabaseManager, DatabaseManagerSwing.
</p>
<p>
You can use it for your own JDBC client programs too.
There is example code showing how to do this at
<code class="filename"><a class="filename" href="filelinks-app.html#SqlFileEmbedder.java-link">
src/org/hsqldb/sample/SqlFileEmbedder.java</a></code>.
</p>
<p>
The sample RC file shown here resides at
<code class="filename"><a class="filename" href="filelinks-app.html#sqltool.rc-link">sample/sqltool.rc</a></code>
in your HSQLDB distribution
<a href="sqltool-chapt.html#ftn.samplelocFn" class="footnoteref"><sup class="footnoteref">[1]</sup></a>.
</p>
<div class="example">
<a name="N1055B"></a>
<p class="title">
<b>Example 1.1. Sample RC File</b>
</p>
<div class="example-contents">
<pre class="programlisting"># $Id: sqltool.rc 4313 2011-06-06 02:19:38Z unsaved $
# This is a sample RC configuration file used by SqlTool, DatabaseManager,
# and any other program that uses the org.hsqldb.lib.RCData class.
# See the documentation for SqlTool for various ways to use this file.
# If you have the least concerns about security, then secure access to
# your RC file.
# You can run SqlTool right now by copying this file to your home directory
# and running
# java -jar /path/to/sqltool.jar mem
# This will access the first urlid definition below in order to use a
# personal Memory-Only database.
# "url" values may, of course, contain JDBC connection properties, delimited
# with semicolons.
# As of revision 3347 of SqlFile, you can also connect to datasources defined
# here from within an SqlTool session/file with the command "\j urlid".
# You can use Java system property values in this file like this: ${user.home}
# The only feature added recently is the optional "transiso" setting,
# which may be set to an all-caps transaction isolation level as listed
# in the Java API Spec for java.sql.Connection.
# Windows users are advised to use forward slashes instead of reverse slashes,
# and to avoid paths containing spaces or other funny characters. (This
# recommendation applies to any Java app, not just SqlTool).
# A personal Memory-Only (non-persistent) database.
urlid mem
url jdbc:hsqldb:mem:memdbid
username SA
password
# A personal, local, persistent database.
urlid personal
url jdbc:hsqldb:file:${user.home}/db/personal;shutdown=true
username SA
password
transiso TRANSACTION_READ_COMMITTED
# When connecting directly to a file database like this, you should
# use the shutdown connection property like this to shut down the DB
# properly when you exit the JVM.
# This is for a hsqldb Server running with default settings on your local
# computer (and for which you have not changed the password for "SA").
urlid localhost-sa
url jdbc:hsqldb:hsql://localhost
username SA
password
# Template for a urlid for an Oracle database.
# You will need to put the oracle.jdbc.OracleDriver class into your
# classpath.
# In the great majority of cases, you want to use the file classes12.zip
# (which you can get from the directory $ORACLE_HOME/jdbc/lib of any
# Oracle installation compatible with your server).
# Since you need to add to the classpath, you can't invoke SqlTool with
# the jar switch, like "java -jar .../sqltool.jar...".
# Put both the SqlTool jar and classes12.zip in your classpath (and export!)
# and run something like "java org.hsqldb.util.SqlTool...".
#urlid cardiff2
#url jdbc:oracle:thin:@aegir.admc.com:1522:TRAFFIC_SID
#username blaine
#password secretpassword
#driver oracle.jdbc.OracleDriver
# Template for a TLS-encrypted HSQLDB Server.
# Remember that the hostname in hsqls (and https) JDBC URLs must match the
# CN of the server certificate (the port and instance alias that follows
# are not part of the certificate at all).
# You only need to set "truststore" if the server cert is not approved by
# your system default truststore (which a commercial certificate probably
# would be).
#urlid tls
#url jdbc:hsqldb:hsqls://db.admc.com:9001/lm2
#username BLAINE
#password asecret
#truststore ${user.home}/ca/db/db-trust.store
# Template for a Postgresql database
#urlid blainedb
#url jdbc:postgresql://idun.africawork.org/blainedb
#username blaine
#password losung1
#driver org.postgresql.Driver
# Template for a MySQL database. MySQL has poor JDBC support.
#urlid mysql-testdb
#url jdbc:mysql://hostname:3306/dbname
#username root
#password hiddenpwd
#driver com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
# Note that "databases" in SQL Server and Sybase are traditionally used for
# the same purpose as "schemas" with more SQL-compliant databases.
# Template for a Microsoft SQL Server database using Microsoft's Driver
# (I find that the JTDS driver is much more responsive than Microsoft's).
# OLDER JDBC Driver:
#urlid msprojsvr
#url jdbc:microsoft:sqlserver://hostname;DatabaseName=DbName;SelectMethod=Cursor
# The SelectMethod setting is required to do more than one thing on a JDBC
# session (I guess Microsoft thought nobody would really use Java for
# anything other than a "hello world" program).
# This is for Microsoft's SQL Server 2000 driver (requires mssqlserver.jar
# and msutil.jar).
#driver com.microsoft.jdbc.sqlserver.SQLServerDriver
#username myuser
#password hiddenpwd
# Current 2011 JDBC Driver for Microsoft SQL Server:
# Requires just the new sqljdbc4.jar. (Microsoft just loves back-slashes)
#url jdbc:sqlserver://hostname\instanceName;DatabaseName=dbname
#driver com.microsoft.jdbc.sqlserver.SQLServerDriver
# Template for Microsoft SQL Server database using the JTDS Driver
# http://jtds.sourceforge.net Jar file has name like "jtds-1.2.5.jar".
#urlid nlyte
#username myuser
#password hiddenpwd
#url jdbc:jtds:sqlserver://myhost/nlyte;instance=MSSQLSERVER
#driver net.sourceforge.jtds.jdbc.Driver
# Template for a Sybase database
#urlid sybase
#url jdbc:sybase:Tds:hostname:4100/dbname
#username blaine
#password hiddenpwd
# This is for the jConnect driver (requires jconn3.jar).
#driver com.sybase.jdbc3.jdbc.SybDriver
# Template for Embedded Derby / Java DB.
#urlid derby1
#url jdbc:derby:path/to/derby/directory;create=true
#username ${user.name}
#password any_noauthbydefault
#driver org.apache.derby.jdbc.EmbeddedDriver
# The embedded Derby driver requires derby.jar.
# There'a also the org.apache.derby.jdbc.ClientDriver driver with URL
# like jdbc:derby://<server>[:<port>]/databaseName, which requires
# derbyclient.jar.
# You can use \= to commit, since the Derby team decided (why???)
# not to implement the SQL standard statement "commit"!!
# Note that SqlTool can not shut down an embedded Derby database properly,
# since that requires an additional SQL connection just for that purpose.
# However, I've never lost data by not shutting it down properly.
# Other than not supporting this quirk of Derby, SqlTool is miles ahead of ij.
</pre>
</div>
</div>
<br class="example-break">
<p>
As noted in the comment (and as used in a couple examples), you
can use Java system properties like this: <code class="code">${user.home}</code>.
Windows users, please read the suggestion directed to you in the
file.
</p>
<p>
You can put this file anywhere you want to, and specify the
location to SqlTool/DatabaseManager/DatabaseManagerSwing by
using the <code class="literal">--rcfile</code> argument.
If there is no reason to not use the default location (and there
are situations where you would not want to), then use the default
location and you won't have to give <code class="literal">--rcfile</code>
arguments to SqlTool/DatabaseManager/DatabaseManagerSwing.
The default location is <code class="filename">sqltool.rc</code> or
<code class="filename">dbmanager.rc</code> in your home directory
(corresponding to the program using it).
If you have any doubt about where your home directory is, just
run SqlTool with a phony urlid and it will tell you where it
expects the configuration file to be.
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="screen"> java -jar $HSQLDB_HOME/lib/sqltool.jar x</pre>
</div>
<p>
The config file consists of stanza(s) like this:
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="programlisting"> urlid web
url jdbc:hsqldb:hsql://localhost
username web
password webspassword</pre>
</div>
<p>
These four settings are required for every urlid.
(There are optional settings also, which are described a couple
paragraphs down).
The URL may contain JDBC connection properties.
You can have as many blank lines and comments like
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="programlisting"> # This comment</pre>
</div>
<p>
</p>
<p>
in the file as you like.
The whole point is that the <span class="emphasis"><em>urlid</em></span> that you
give in your SqlTool/DatabaseManager command must match a
<span class="emphasis"><em>urlid </em></span> in your configuration file.
</p>
<div class="warning" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Warning">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Warning]" src="../images/db/warning.png"></td><th align="left">Warning</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
Use whatever facilities are at your disposal to protect your
configuration file.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>
It should be readable, both locally and remotely, only to users
who run programs that need it.
On UNIX, this is easily accomplished by using <code class="literal">chmod/chown
</code> commands and making sure that it is protected from
anonymous remote access (like via NFS, FTP or Samba).
</p>
<p>
You can also put the following optional settings into a urlid
stanza. The setting will, of course, only apply to that urlid.
</p>
<div class="variablelist">
<table border="0" class="variablelist">
<colgroup>
<col valign="top" align="left">
<col>
</colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">charset</span>
</p>
</td><td>
This is used by the SqlTool program, but not by the
DatabaseManager programs.
See the <a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_charencoding-sect" title="Character Encoding">
Character Encoding</a> section of the
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_nonint-sect" title="Non-Interactive">Non-Interactive</a>
section.
This is used for input and output files, not for stdin or
stdout, which are controlled by environmental variables and
Java system properties.
If you set no encoding for an urlid, input and outfiles will
use the same encoding as for stdin/stdout.
(As of right now, the charset setting here is not honored by
the \j command, but only when SqlTool loads an urlid specified
on the command-line).
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">driver</span>
</p>
</td><td>
Sets the JDBC driver class name.
You can, alternatively, set this for one
SqlTool/DatabaseManager invocation by using the command
line switch <span class="emphasis"><em>--driver</em></span>.
Defaults to <span class="emphasis"><em>org.hsqldb.jdbc.JDBCDriver</em></span>.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">truststore</span>
</p>
</td><td>
TLS trust keystore store file path as documented in the
TLS section of the Listeners chapter of the
<a class="link" href="http://hsqldb.org/doc/2.0/guide/index.html" target="_top">
HyperSQL User Guide</a>
You usually only need to set this if the server is using a
non-publicly-certified certificate (like a self-signed
self-ca'd cert).
Relative paths will be resolved relative to the
<code class="varname">${user.dir}</code>
system property at JRE invocation time.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">transiso</span>
</p>
</td><td>
Specify the Transaction Isolation Level with an all-caps
string, exactly as listed in he Field Summary of the Java
API Spec for the class
<code class="classname">java.sql.Connection</code>.
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p>
Property and SqlTool command-line switches override settings made
in the configuration file.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="sqltool_dsswitch-sect"></a>Switching Data Sources</h2>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
The \j command lets you switch JDBC Data Sources in your SQL files
(or interactively).
"\?" shows the syntax to make a connection by either RCData urlid
or by name + password + JDBC Url.
(If you omit the password parameter, an empty string password will
be used).
The urlid variant uses RC file of
<code class="filename">$HOME/sqltool.rc</code>.
We will add a way to specify an RC file if there is any demand for
that.
</p>
<p>
You can start SqlTool without any JDBC Connection by specifying no
Inline RC and urlid of "-" (just a hyphen).
If you don't need to specify any SQL file paths, you can skip the
hyphen, as in this example.
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="screen">java -jar $HSQLDB_HOME/lib/sqltool.jar -Pv1=one</pre>
</div>
<p>
(The "-" is required when specifying one or more SQL files, in order
to distinguish urlid-spec from file-spec).
Consequently, if you invoke SqlTool with no parameters at all, you
will get a SqlTool session with no JDBC Connection.
You will obviously need to use \j before doing any database work.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="sqltool_ilauth-sect"></a>Using Inline RC Authentication</h2>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
Inline RC authentication setup is accomplished by using the
<code class="literal">--inlineRc</code> command-line switch on SqlTool.
The <code class="literal">--inlineRc</code> command-line switch takes
a comma-separated list of key/value elements.
The <code class="literal">url</code> and <code class="literal">user</code> elements
are required. The rest are optional.
The <code class="literal">--inlineRc</code> switch is the only case where
you can give SQL file paths without a preceding urlid indicator
(an urlid or -).
The program knows not to look for an urlid if you give an inline.
</p>
<p>
Since commas are used to separate each <code class="literal">name=value</code>
pair, you must do some extra work for any commas inside of the
<span class="emphasis"><em>values</em></span> of any <code class="literal">name=value</code>s.
Escape them by proceeding them with backslash, like
"<code class="literal">myName=my\p,value</code>" to inform SqlTool that the
comma is part of the value and not a name/value separator.
</p>
<div class="variablelist">
<table border="0" class="variablelist">
<colgroup>
<col valign="top" align="left">
<col>
</colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term"><code class="varname">url</code></span>
</p>
</td><td>
The JDBC URL of the database you wish to connect to.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term"><code class="varname">user</code></span>
</p>
</td><td>
The username to connect to the database as.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term"><code class="varname">charset</code></span>
</p>
</td><td>
Sets the character encoding. Overrides the platform default, or
what you have set by env variables or Java system properties.
(Does not effect stdin or stdout).
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term"><code class="varname">truststore</code></span>
</p>
</td><td>
The TLS trust keystore file path as documented in the TLS chapter.
Relative paths will be resolved relative to the current directory.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term"><code class="varname">transiso</code></span>
</p>
</td><td>
<code class="classname">java.sql.Connection</code> transaction
isolation level to connect with, as specified in the Java
API spec.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term"><code class="varname">password</code></span>
</p>
</td><td>
<p>
You may only use this element to set empty password, like
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="screen"> password=</pre>
</div>
<p>For any other password value, omit the
<code class="literal">password</code> element and you will be prompted
for the value.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p>
(Use the <code class="literal">--driver</code> switch instead of
<code class="literal">--inlineRc</code> to specify a JDBC driver class).
Here is an example of invoking SqlTool to connect to a standalone database.
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="screen">java -jar $HSQLDB_HOME/lib/sqltool.jar --inlineRc=url=jdbc:hsqldb:file:/home/dan/dandb,user=dan</pre>
</div>
<p>
</p>
<p>
For security reasons, you cannot specify a non-empty password as
an argument. You
will be prompted for a password as part of the login process.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="sqltool_logging-sect"></a>Logging</h2>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
Both the \l command and all warnings and error messages now use
a logging facility.
The logging facility hands off to Log4j if Log4j is found in the
classpath, and otherwise will hand off to
<code class="classname">java.util.logging</code>.
The default behavior of <code class="classname">java.util.logging</code>
should work fine for most users.
If you are using log4j and are redirecting with pipes, you may
want to configure a Console Appender with target of
<code class="literal">"System.err"</code> so that error output will go to
the error stream (all console output for
<code class="classname">java.util.logging</code> goes to stderr by default).
See the API specs for Log4j and for J2SE for how to configure
either product.
If you are embedding SqlTool in a product to process SQL files,
I suggest that you use log4j.
<code class="classname">java.util.logging</code> is neither scalable nor
well-designed.
</p>
<p>
Run the command <code class="literal">\l?</code> to see how to use the
logging command <code class="literal">\l</code> in your SQL files (or
interactively), including what logging levels you may specify.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="sqltool_int-sect"></a>Interactive Usage</h2>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
Do read the
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_baremin-sect" title="The Bare Minimum">The Bare Minimum</a>
section before you read this section.
</p>
<p>
You run SqlTool interactively by specifying no SQL filepaths on
the SqlTool command line. Like this.
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="screen"> java -jar $HSQLDB_HOME/lib/sqltool.jar urlid</pre>
</div>
<div class="procedure">
<a name="N1066A"></a>
<p class="title">
<b>Procedure 1.3. What happens when SqlTool is run interactively
(using all default settings)
</b>
</p>
<ol class="procedure" type="1">
<li class="step">
<p>
SqlTool starts up and connects to the specified database,
using your SqlTool configuration file
(as explained in the
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_auth-sect" title="RC File Authentication Setup">RC File Authentication Setup</a> section).
</p>
</li>
<li class="step">
<p>
SQL file <code class="filename">auto.sql</code> in your home directory
is executed (if there is one),
</p>
</li>
<li class="step">
<p>
SqlTool displays a
banner showing the SqlTool and SqlFile version numbers and
describes the different command types that you can give, as
well as commands to list all of the specific commands available
to you.
</p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
<p>
You exit your session by using the "\q" special command or ending
input (like with Ctrl-D or Ctrl-Z).
</p>
<div class="important" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Important">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Important]" src="../images/db/important.png"></td><th align="left">Important</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
Any command may be preceded by space characters.
Special Commands, Edit Buffer Commands, PL Commands, Macros always
consist of just one line.
</p>
<p>
These rules do not apply at all to
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_raw-sect" title="Raw Mode">Raw Mode</a>.
Raw mode is for use by advanced users when they want to completely
bypass SqlTool processing in order to enter a chunk of text for
direct transmission to the database engine.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="N10688"></a>SqlTool Command-Line Editing</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
If you are really comfortable with grep, perl, or vim, you will
instantly be an expert with SqlTool command-line editing.
Due to limitations of Java I/O, we can't use up-arrow recall,
which many people are used to from DosKey and Bash shell.
If you don't know how to use regular expressions, and don't want
to learn how to use them, then just forget command-recall.
(Actually DosKey does work from vanilla Windows MSDOS console
windows. Be aware that it suffers from the same 20-year old
quirks as DOS command-line editing. Very often the command line
history will get shifted and you won't be able to find the command
you want to recall. Usually you can work around this by typing
a comment... "::" to DOS or "--" to SqlTool then re-trying on the
next command line).
</p>
<div class="itemizedlist">
<p class="title">
<b>Basic command entry (i.e., without regexps)</b>
</p>
<ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; ">
<li class="listitem">
Just type in your command, and use the backspace-key to
fix mistakes on the same line.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
If you goof up a multi-line command, just hit the ENTER
key twice to start over. (The command will be moved to
the buffer where it will do no harm).
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Use the ":h" command to view your command history.
You can use your terminal emulator scroll bar and copy
and paste facility to repeat commands.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
As long as you don't need to change text that is already
in a command, you can easily repeat commands from the
history like ":14;" to re-run command number 14 from
history.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Expanding just a bit from the previous item, you can
add on to a previous command by running a command like
":14a" (where the "a" means <span class="emphasis"><em>append</em></span>).
</li>
<li class="listitem">
See the <a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_macro-sect" title="Macros">Macros</a>
section about how to set and use macros.
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p>
</p>
<p>
If you use regular expressions to search through your command
history, or to modify commands, be aware that the command type
of commands in history are fixed.
You can search and modify the text after a \ or * prefix (if any),
but you can't search on or change a prefix (or add or remove one).
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="N106AC"></a>Command Types</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
When you are typing into SqlTool, you are always typing part of
the <span class="emphasis"><em>immediate command</em></span>.
If the immediate command is an SQL statement, it is executed as
soon as SqlTool reads in the trailing (unquoted) semi-colon.
Commands of the other command types are executed as soon as you
hit ENTER.
The interactive : commands can perform actions with or on the
edit buffer.
The <span class="emphasis"><em>edit buffer</em></span> usually contains a copy of
the last command executed, and you can always view it with the :b
command.
If you never use any : commands, you can entirely ignore the
edit buffer.
If you want to repeat commands or edit previous commands, you
will need to work with the edit buffer.
The immediate command contains whatever (and exactly what)
you type.
The command history and edit buffer may contain any type of
command other than comments and : commands
(i.e., : commands and comments are just not copied to the history
or to the edit buffer).
</p>
<p>
Hopefully an example will clarify the difference between the
immediate command and the edit buffer.
If you type in the edit buffer Substitution command
"<code class="literal">:s/tbl/table/</code>", the :s command that you typed
is the immediate command (and it will never be stored to the
edit buffer or history, since it is a : command), but the purpose
of the substitution command is to modify the contents of the
edit buffer (perform a substitution on it)-- the goal being that
after your substitutions you would execute the buffer with the
"<code class="literal">:;</code>" command.
The ":a" command is special in that when you hit ENTER to execute
it, it copies the contents of the edit buffer to a new immediate
command and leaves you in a state where you are
<span class="emphasis"><em>appending</em></span> to that
<span class="emphasis"><em>immediate</em></span> command (nearly) exactly as if
you had just typed it in.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="N106C5"></a>Emulating Non-Interactive mode</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
You can run SqlTool <span class="emphasis"><em>interactively</em></span>, but
have SqlTool behave exactly as if it were processing an SQL
file (i.e., no command-line prompts, error-handling
that defaults to fail-upon-error, etc.).
Just specify "-" as the SQL file name in the command line.
This is a good way to test what SqlTool will do when it
encounters any specific command in an SQL file.
See the <a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_scripting-sect" title="Piping and shell scripting">Piping and shell scripting</a>
subsection of the Non-Interactive chapter for an example.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="N106D1"></a>Command Types</h2>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="variablelist">
<p class="title">
<b>Command types</b>
</p>
<table border="0" class="variablelist">
<colgroup>
<col valign="top" align="left">
<col>
</colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">SQL Statement</span>
</p>
</td><td>
<p class="simpara">
Any command that you enter which does not begin with "\", ":",
"* " or "/" is an SQL Statement.
The command is not terminated when you hit ENTER, like most
OS shells.
You terminate SQL Statements with either ";" or with a blank
line.
In the former case, the SQL Statement will be executed against
the SQL database and the command will go into the edit
buffer and SQL command history for editing or viewing later on.
In the former case,
<span class="emphasis"><em>execute against the SQL database</em></span> means
to transmit the SQL text to the database engine for execution.
In the latter case (you end an SQL Statement with a blank
line), the command will go to the edit buffer and SQL history,
but will not be executed (but you can execute it later from the
edit buffer).
</p>
<p class="simpara">
(Blank lines are only interpreted this way when SqlTool is
run interactively.
In SQL files, blank lines inside of SQL statements remain
part of the SQL statement).
</p>
<p class="simpara">
As a result of these termination rules, whenever you are
entering text that is not a Special Command, Edit Buffer /
History Command, or PL Command, you are always
<span class="emphasis"><em>appending</em></span> lines to an SQL Statement
or comment.
(In the case of the first line, you will be appending to an
empty SQL statement. I.e. you will be starting a new SQL
Statement or comment).
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">Special Command</span>
</p>
</td><td>
Run the command "\?" to list the Special Commands.
All of the Special Commands begin with "\".
I'll describe some of the most
useful Special Commands below.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">Edit Buffer / History Command</span>
</p>
</td><td>
Run the command ":?" to list the Edit-Buffer/History Commands.
All of these commands begin with ":".
These commands use commands from the command history, or
operate upon the edit "buffer", so that
you can edit and/or (re-)execute previously entered commands.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">PL Command</span>
</p>
</td><td>
<p>
Procedural Language commands.
Run the command "<code class="literal">*?</code>" to list the PL Commands.
All of the PL Commands begin with "*".
PL commands are for setting and using scripting variables
and conditional and flow control statements like
<code class="literal">* if</code> and <code class="literal">* while</code>.
A few PL features (such as macros and updating and
selecting data directly from/to files) can be a real
convenience for nearly all users, so these features will be
discussed briefly in this section.
More detailed explanation of PL variables and the other
PL features, with examples, are covered in the
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_pl-sect" title="SqlTool Procedural Language">SqlTool Procedural Language</a> section.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">Macro Command</span>
</p>
</td><td>
Macro definition and usage commands.
Run the command "/?" to show the define, list, or use macros.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">Raw Mode</span>
</p>
</td><td>
The descriptions of command-types above do not apply to
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_raw-sect" title="Raw Mode">Raw Mode</a>.
In raw mode, SqlTool
doesn't interpret what you type at all. It all just
goes into the edit buffer which you can send to the database
engine.
Beginners can safely ignore raw mode.
You will never encounter it unless you run the "\."
special command, or define a stored procedure or function.
See the
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_raw-sect" title="Raw Mode">Raw Mode</a> section
for the details.
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="N1071A"></a>Special Commands</h2>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="variablelist">
<p class="title">
<b>Essential Special Commands</b>
</p>
<table border="0" class="variablelist">
<colgroup>
<col valign="top" align="left">
<col>
</colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">\?</span>
</p>
</td><td>
In-program Help.
<span class="bold"><strong>Run this to show ALL available Special
Commands instead of just the subset listed here!</strong></span>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">\q</span>
</p>
</td><td>
Quit
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">\j...</span>
</p>
</td><td>
View JDBC Data Source details or connect up to a JDBC Data
Source (replacing the current connection, if any).
Run \? to see the syntax for the different usages.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">\i path/to/script.sql</span>
</p>
</td><td>
Execute the specified SQL script, then continue again
interactively.
Since SqlTool is a Java program, you can safely use forward
slashes in your file paths, regardless of your operating
system.
You can use Java system properties like
<code class="literal">${user.home}</code>, PL variables like
<code class="literal">*{this}</code> and <code class="literal">@</code> in your
file paths.
The last is mostly useful for \i statements inside of SQL files,
where it means the directory containing the
<span class="emphasis"><em>current</em></span> script.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">\c true (or false)</span>
</p>
</td><td>
Change error-handling (<span class="emphasis"><em>Continue-on-error</em></span>)
behavior from the default.
By default when SqlTool is run interactively, errors will be
reported but SqlTool will continue to process subsequent
commands.
By default when SqlTool is run non-interactively, errors will
also cause SqlTool to stop processing the current stream
(like stdin) or SQL file.
The default settings are usually what is desired, except for
SQL scripts which need to abort upon failures, even when
invoked manually (including for interactive testing purposes).
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">\=</span>
</p>
</td><td>
Commit the current SQL transaction.
Most users are used to typing the SQL statement
<code class="literal">commit;</code>, but this command is crucial for
those databases which don't support the statement.
It's obviously unnecessary if you have auto-commit mode on.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">\m?</span>
</p>
</td><td>
List a summary of DSV and CSV importing,
and all available options for them.
You can use variables in the file path specifications, as
described for the \i command above.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">\x?</span>
</p>
</td><td>
Ditto.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">\mq?</span>
</p>
</td><td>
Ditto.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">\xq?</span>
</p>
</td><td>
Ditto.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">\d?</span>
</p>
</td><td>
List a summary of the \d commands below.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">\dt [filter_substring]</span>
</p>
</td><td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">\dv [filter_substring]</span>
</p>
</td><td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">\ds [filter_substring]</span>
</p>
</td><td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">\di [table_name]</span>
</p>
</td><td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">\dS [filter_substring]</span>
</p>
</td><td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">\da [filter_substring]</span>
</p>
</td><td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">\dn [filter_substring]</span>
</p>
</td><td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">\du [filter_substring]</span>
</p>
</td><td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">\dr [filter_substring]</span>
</p>
</td><td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">\d* [filter_substring]</span>
</p>
</td><td>
<p>
Lists available objects of the given type.
</p>
<div class="itemizedlist">
<ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; ">
<li class="listitem">t: non-system Tables</li>
<li class="listitem">v: Views</li>
<li class="listitem">s: Sequences</li>
<li class="listitem">i: Indexes</li>
<li class="listitem">S: System tables</li>
<li class="listitem">a: Aliases</li>
<li class="listitem">n: schema Names</li>
<li class="listitem">u: database Users</li>
<li class="listitem">r: Roles</li>
<li class="listitem">*: all table-like objects</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p>
If your database supports schemas, then the schema name will
also be listed.
</p>
<p class="simpara">
If you supply an optional <span class="emphasis"><em>filter substring</em></span>,
then only items which match the specified substring.
will be listed.
In most cases, the specified filter will be treated as a
regular expression matched against the candidate object names.
In order to take advantage of extreme server-side performance
benefits, however, in some cases the substring is passed to
the database server and the filter will processed by the server.
</p>
<div class="important" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Important: The regexp test is case-sensitive!">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Important]" src="../images/db/important.png"></td><th align="left">The regexp test is case-sensitive!</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
Even though in SQL queries and for the "\d objectname"
command object names are usually case-insensitive, for
the \dX commands, you must capitalize the filter
substring exactly as it will appear in the special
command output.
This is an inconvenience, since the database engine
will change names in SQL to default case unless you
double-quote the name, but that is server-side
functionality which cannot (portably) be reproduced by
SqlTool.
You can use spaces and other special characters in
the string.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<div class="tip" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Tip: Schema-narrowed Filter Specs">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Tip]" src="../images/db/tip.png"></td><th align="left">Schema-narrowed Filter Specs</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
Filter substrings ending with "." are special.
If a substring ends with ".", then this means to narrow
the search by the exact, case-sensitive schema name
given.
For example, if I run "<code class="literal">\d* BLAINE.</code>",
this will list all
table-like database objects in the "BLAINE" schema.
The capitalization of the schema must be exactly the same
as how the schema name is listed by the "\dn" command.
You can use spaces and other special characters in
the string.
(I.e., enter the name exactly how you would enter it
inside of double-quotes in an SQL command).
This is an inconvenience, since the database engine
will change names in SQL to default case unless you
double-quote the name, but that is server-side
functionality which cannot (portably) be reproduced by
SqlTool.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<div class="tip" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Tip: Current-Schema Filter Spec">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Tip]" src="../images/db/tip.png"></td><th align="left">Current-Schema Filter Spec</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
The filter string "." (just a plain dot) means the current
session schema, for databases which support the concept
according to the SQL standard (HyperSQL database does).
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<div class="important" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Important: Searching for Indexes">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Important]" src="../images/db/important.png"></td><th align="left">Searching for Indexes</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
Indexes may not be searched for by
<span class="emphasis"><em>substring</em></span>, only by
exact target table name.
So if <code class="literal">I1</code> is an index on table
<code class="literal">T1</code>, then you list this index by running
"\di T1".
In addition, many database vendors will report on indexes
only if a target table is identified.
Therefore, "\di" with no argument will fail if your database
vendor does not support it.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">\d objectname [[/]regexp]</span>
</p>
</td><td>
<p class="simpara">
Lists names of columns in the specified table or view.
<code class="literal">objectname</code> may be a base table name or
a schema.object name.
</p>
<p class="simpara">
If you supply a filter string, then only columns with a name
matching the given regular expression will be listd.
(If no special characters are used, this just means that
names containing the specified substring will match).
You'll find this filter is a great convenience compared to
other database utilities, where you have to list all columns
of large tables when you are only interested in one of them.
</p>
<p class="simpara">
To narrow the displayed information based on all column
outputs, instead of just the column names, just prefix the
expression with /.
For example, to list all INTEGER columns, you could run
<code class="literal">\d mytable /INTEGER</code>.
</p>
<div class="tip" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Tip">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Tip]" src="../images/db/tip.png"></td><th align="left">Tip</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
When working with real data (as opposed to learning or playing),
I often find it useful to run two SqlTool sessions in two
side-by-side terminal emulator windows.
I do all of my real work in one window, and use the other
mostly for \d commands.
This way I can refer to the data dictionary while writing SQL
commands, without having to scroll.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p>
This list here includes only the <span class="emphasis"><em>essential</em></span>
Special Commands, but n.b. that
<span class="bold"><strong>there are other useful Special Commands
which you can list by running <code class="literal">\?</code></strong></span>.
(You can, for example, execute SQL from external SQL files, and
save your interactive SQL commands to files).
Some specifics of these other commands are specified immediately
below, and the
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_report-sect" title="Generating Text or HTML Reports">Generating Text or HTML Reports</a>
section explains how to use the "\o" and "\h" special commands to
generate reports.
</p>
<p>
Be aware that the <code class="literal">\!</code> Special Command does
not work for external programs that read from standard input.
You can invoke non-interactive and graphical interactive programs,
but not command-line interactive programs.
</p>
<p>
SqlTool executes <code class="literal">\!</code> programs directly, it does
not run an operating system shell (this is to avoid OS-specific
code in SqlTool).
Because of this, you can give as many command-line arguments
as you wish, but you can't use shell wildcards or redirection.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="N1081C"></a>Edit Buffer / History Commands</h2>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="variablelist">
<p class="title">
<b>Edit Buffer / History Commands</b>
</p>
<table border="0" class="variablelist">
<colgroup>
<col valign="top" align="left">
<col>
</colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">:?</span>
</p>
</td><td>
IN-program Help
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">:b</span>
</p>
</td><td>
List the current contents of the edit buffer.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">:h</span>
</p>
</td><td>
Shows the Command History.
For each command which has been executed (up to the max
history length), the SQL command history will show the
command; its command number (#); and also how many commands
<span class="emphasis"><em>back</em></span> it is (as a negative number).
: commands are never added to the history list.
You can then use either form of the command identifier to
recall a command to the edit buffer (the command described
next) or as the target of any of the following : commands.
This last is accomplished in a manner very similar to the
vi editor.
You specify the target command number between the colon
and the command.
As an example, if you gave the command
<code class="literal">:s/X/Y/</code>, that would perform the
substitution on the contents of the edit buffer; but if you
gave the command <code class="literal">:-3 s/X/Y/</code>, that would
perform the substitution on the command 3 back in the
command history (and copy the output to the edit buffer).
Also, just like vi, you can identify the command to recall
by using a regular expression inside of slashes, like
<code class="literal">:/blue/ s/X/Y/</code> to operate on the last
command you ran which contains "blue".
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">:13 OR :-2 OR :/blue/</span>
</p>
</td><td>
<p class="simpara">
Recalls a command from Command history to the edit buffer.
Enter ":" followed by the positive command number from
Command history, like ":13"... or ":" followed by a negative
number like ":-2" for two commands back in the Command
history... or ":" followed by a regular expression inside
slashes, like ":/blue/" to recall the last command which
contains "blue".
The specified command will be written to the edit buffer
so that you can execute it or edit it using the commands below.
</p>
<p class="simpara">
As described under the :h command immediately above,
you can follow the command number here with
any of the commands below to perform the given operation
on the specified command from history instead of on the
edit buffer contents.
So, for example, ":4;" would load command 4 from history
then execute it (see the ":;" command below).
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">:;</span>
</p>
</td><td>
Executes the SQL, Special or PL statement in the edit buffer
(by default).
This is an extremely useful command.
It's easy to remember because it consists of ":", meaning
<span class="emphasis"><em>Edit Buffer Command</em></span>, plus a
line-terminating ";", (which generally means to execute an
SQL statement, though in this case it will also execute a
special or PL command).
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">:a</span>
</p>
</td><td>
<p class="simpara">
Enter append mode with the contents of the edit buffer (by
default) as the current command.
When you hit ENTER, things will be nearly exactly the same
as if you
physically re-typed the command that is in the edit buffer.
Whatever lines you type next will be appended to the immediate
command.
As always, you then have the choice of hitting ENTER to
execute a Special or PL command, entering a blank line to
store back to the edit buffer, or end a SQL statement with
semi-colon and ENTER to execute it.
</p>
<p class="simpara">
You can, optionally, put a string after the :a, in which
case things will be exactly as just described except the
additional text will also be appended to the new immediate
command.
If you put a string after the :a which ends with ;, then
the resultant new immediate command will just be executed
right away, as if you typed in and entered the entire thing.
</p>
<p class="simpara">
If your edit buffer contains
<code class="literal">SELECT x FROM mytab</code> and you run
<code class="literal">a:le</code>, the resultant command will be
<code class="literal">SELECT x FROM mytable</code>.
If your edit buffer contains
<code class="literal">SELECT x FROM mytab</code> and you run
<code class="literal">a: ORDER BY y</code>, the resultant command will be
<code class="literal">SELECT x FROM mytab ORDER BY y</code>.
Notice that in the latter case the append text begins with a
space character.
</p>
<p class="simpara">
You may notice that you can't use the left-arrow or backspace
key to back up over the original text.
This is due to Java and portability constraints.
If you want to edit existing text, then you shouldn't use the
Append command.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">:s/from regex/to string/switches</span>
</p>
</td><td>
<p class="simpara">
The Substitution Command is the primary method for SqlTool
command editing-- it operates upon the current edit buffer
by default.
The "to string" and the "switches" are both optional (though
the final "/" is not).
To start with, I'll discuss the use and behavior if you don't
supply any substitution mode switches.
</p>
<p>
Don't use "/" if it occurs in either "from string" or "to
string".
You can use any character that you want in place of "/", but
it must not occur in the <span class="emphasis"><em>from</em></span> or
<span class="emphasis"><em>to</em></span> strings.
Example
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="programlisting"> :s@from string@to string@</pre>
</div>
<p class="simpara">
The <span class="emphasis"><em>to string </em></span> is substituted for the first
occurrence of the (case-specific)
<span class="emphasis"><em>from string</em></span>.
The replacement will consider the entire SQL statement, even
if it is a multi-line statement.
</p>
<p class="simpara">
In the example above, the from regex was a plain string, but
it is interpreted as a regular expression so you can do
all kinds of powerful substitutions.
See the <code class="literal">perlre</code> man page, or the
<a class="link" href="http://download.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/regex/Pattern.html" target="_top">java.util.regex.Pattern</a>
API Spec for everything you need to know about extended
regular expressions.
</p>
<p class="simpara">
Don't end a <span class="emphasis"><em>to</em></span> string with ";" in attempt
to make a command execute.
There is a substitution mode switch to use for that purpose.
</p>
<p>
You can use any combination of the substitution mode switches.
</p>
<div class="itemizedlist">
<ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; ">
<li class="listitem">
<p>
Use "i" to make the searches for
<span class="emphasis"><em>from regex</em></span> case insensitive.
</p>
</li>
<li class="listitem">
<p>
Use "g" to substitute Globally, i.e., to substitute
<span class="emphasis"><em>all</em></span> occurrences of the
<span class="emphasis"><em>from regex</em></span> instead of only the
first occurrence found.
</p>
</li>
<li class="listitem">
<p>
Use ";" to execute the command immediately after the
substitution is performed.
</p>
</li>
<li class="listitem">
<p>
Use "m" for ^ and $ to match each line-break in a
multi-line edit buffer, instead of just at the very
beginning and every end of the entire buffer.
</p>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p>
</p>
<p>
If you specify a command number (from the command history),
you end up with a feature very reminiscent of vi, but even
more powerful, since the Perl/Java regular expression are
a superset of the vi regular expressions.
As an example,
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="programlisting"> :24 s/pin/needle/g;</pre>
</div>
<p> would start with command number 24 from
command history, substitute "needle" for all occurrences of
"pin", then execute the result of that substitution
(and this final statement will of course be copied to the
edit buffer and to command history).
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">:w /path/to/file.sql</span>
</p>
</td><td>
This appends the contents of the current buffer (by default)
to the specified file.
Since what is being written are Special, PL, or SQL commands,
you are effectively creating an SQL script.
To write some previous command to a file,
just restore the command to the edit buffer
with a command like ":-4" before you give the :w command.
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p>
I find the ":/regex/" and ":/regex/;" constructs particularly
handy for every-day usage.
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="programlisting"> :/\\d/;</pre>
</div>
<p>re-executes the last \d command that you gave
(The extra "\" is needed to escape the special meaning of "\"
in regular expressions).
It's great to be able to recall and execute the last "insert"
command, for example, without needing to check the history or
keep track of how many commands back it was. To re-execute
the last insert command, just run ":/insert/;".
If you want to be safe about it, do it in two steps to verify
that you didn't accidentally recall some other command which
happened to contain the string "insert", like
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="programlisting"> :/insert/
:;</pre>
</div>
<p>(Executing the last only if you are
satisfied when SqlTool reports what command it restored).
Often, of course, you will want to change the command before
re-executing, and that's when you combine the :s and :a commands.
</p>
<p>
We'll finish up with a couple fine points about Edit/Buffer
commands.
You generally can't use PL variables in Edit/Buffer commands, to
eliminate possible ambiguities and complexities when modifying
commands.
The :w command is an exception to this rule, since it can be
useful to use variables to determine the output file, and this
command does not do any "editing".
</p>
<p>
The :? in-program help explains how you can change the default
regular expression matching behavior (case sensitivity, etc.), but
you can always use syntax like "(?i)" inside of your regular
expression, as described in the Java API spec for class
<code class="classname"><a class="classname" href="http://download.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/regex/Pattern.html" target="_top">
java.util.regex.Pattern</a></code>.
History-command-matching with the /regex/ construct is
purposefully liberal, matching any portion of the command,
case sensitive, etc., but you can still use the method just
described to modify this behavior. In this case, you could
use "(?-i)" at the beginning of your regular expression to
be case-sensitive.
</p>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="N108CD"></a>Command History</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
The SQL history shown by the :h command, and used by other commands,
is truncated to 100 entries, since its utility comes from being
able to quickly view the history list.
You can change the history length by setting the system property
<code class="literal">sqltool.historyLength</code> to the desire integer
value (using any of the System Property mechanisms provided by
Java).
If there is any demand, I'll make the setting of this value more
convenient.
</p>
<p>
The SQL history list contains all executed commands other than
Edit Buffer commands and comments, even if the command has a
syntax error or fails upon execution.
The reason for including bad commands is so that you can
recall and fix them if you wish to.
The same applies to the edit buffer.
If you copy a command to the edit buffer by entering blank
line, or if you edit the edit buffer, that edit buffer value
will never make it into the command history until and if
you execute it.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="sqltool_interactive_pl_commands-sect"></a>PL Commands</h2>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="variablelist">
<p class="title">
<b>
Essential PL Command</b>
</p>
<table border="0" class="variablelist">
<colgroup>
<col valign="top" align="left">
<col>
</colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">* ?</span>
</p>
</td><td>
In-program Help about using the PL variables which have been
set.
<span class="bold"><strong>Use this command!</strong></span>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">* ? assign</span>
</p>
</td><td>
In-program Help about setting and unsetting PL variables.
<span class="bold"><strong>Use this command!</strong></span>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">* VARNAME = value</span>
</p>
</td><td>
<p>
Set the value of a variable.
If the variable doesn't exist yet, it will be created.
The most common use for this is so that you can later use
it in math expressions like <code class="literal">VARNAME</code>,
in logical (conditionally) expressions like
<code class="literal">*{VARNAME}</code>, or in other commands
(including SQL) like <code class="literal">*{VARNAME}</code> or
<code class="literal">*{:VARNAME}</code> construct.
The only difference between <code class="literal">*{literal}</code> and
<code class="literal">*{:VARNAME}</code> is that the former produces an
error if VARNAME is not set, whereas the latter will expand
to a zero-length string if VARNAME is not set.
</p>
<div class="important" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Important: Preventing unset-variable Errors">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Important]" src="../images/db/important.png"></td><th align="left">Preventing unset-variable Errors</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
You can prevent all unset-variable errors by using the
construct <code class="literal">*{:VARNAME}</code> in place of
<code class="literal">*{VARNAME}</code> wherever
<code class="varname">VARNAME</code> may not then be set.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>
</p>
<div class="warning" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Warning">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Warning]" src="../images/db/warning.png"></td><th align="left">Warning</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
With the current version of SqlTool, you can't use this
assignment command to set the value of a variable to the empty
string unless you set Java system property
<code class="literal">sqltool.REMOVE_EMPTY_VARS</code>
to <code class="literal">false</code>.
We are talking about assignments like the following:
</p>
<pre class="programlisting"> * VARNAME =</pre>
<p>
If <code class="literal">sqltool.REMOVE_EMPTY_VARS</code> is set to
<code class="literal">false</code>, then the assignment shown assigns
the empty string.
Otherwise, the assignment shown <span class="emphasis"><em>unsets</em></span> the
variable (which is equivalent to setting it to be null).
You are encouraged to set
<code class="literal">sqltool.REMOVE_EMPTY_VARS</code>
to <code class="literal">false</code>, because this will become the default
behavior of SqlTool shortly (i.e. even if you don't set the
system property).
Regardless of <code class="literal">sqltool.REMOVE_EMPTY_VARS</code>, you
can always use the unset command (described next) to unset
variables, and you can always use command line switches
<code class="literal">-P</code> or <code class="literal">--setVar</code> to assign
empty strings.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p class="simpara">
See
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_variables-sect" title="Variables">Variables</a> subsection for information
about variable usage.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">* - VARNAME</span>
</p>
</td><td>
<span class="emphasis"><em>Unset</em></span> (remove) the specified variable.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">* VARNAME _</span>
</p>
</td><td>
When next SQL command is run, instead of displaying the rows,
just store the very first column value to variable VARNAME.
This works for CLOB columns too.
It also works with Oracle XML type columns if you use
column labels and the <code class="literal">getclobval</code> function.
If the SQL null value is retrieved next, then this variable will
be assigned the value null, which is the same thing as
unsetting it.
It's easy to tell when a variable is set to null vs. when it
is set to the empty string.
See the <a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_nullempty-sect" title="Nulls and Empty Strings">Nulls and Empty Strings</a> section about that.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">* ? control</span>
</p>
</td><td>
In-program Help about PL control/branching commands.
<span class="bold"><strong>Use this command!</strong></span>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">* if (LOGICAL EXPR)</span>
</p>
</td><td>
If the logical expression evaluates to true, then the following
block of code (up to the paired <code class="literal">* end if</code>
statement is executed.
If the expression is false, then the same code block is skipped.
Run <code class="literal">* ? control</code> for details, including
the optional <code class="literal">* else</code> statement, a short-cut
<span class="emphasis"><em>inline if statement</em></span>, and several other
branching statements.
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p>
This list here includes only a sampling of some
<span class="emphasis"><em>essential</em></span> PL Commands, but
<span class="bold"><strong>there are many other useful PL Commands
which you can list by running <code class="literal">* ?</code></strong></span>.
</p>
<p>
PL variables are intimately involved with most PL commands, and (and
with some Special commands).
Even if you never assign a PL variable, if you are at technical level
of using PL commands, you should at least know how to check SqlTool
system PL variables which effect SqlTool's behavior.
See the <a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_nullempty-sect" title="Nulls and Empty Strings">Nulls and Empty Strings</a> section about that.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="sqltool_nonint-sect"></a>Non-Interactive</h2>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
Read the <a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_int-sect" title="Interactive Usage">Interactive Usage</a>
section if you have not already,
because much of what is in this section builds upon that.
You can skip all discussion about Command History and the
edit buffer if you will not use those interactive features.
(Except the important exception that the edit buffer is still
populated by executed commands and raw mode, so the buffer can
be used by <code class="literal">* VARNAME :</code>,
<code class="literal">/: VARNAME</code>, <code class="literal">\x :</code>, and
<code class="literal">\xq :</code> commands).
</p>
<p>
The previous point brings us to another important consideration for
SQL script writers.
When SqlTool is run interactively, you can enter a blank line after
a SQL command to send the command to the edit buffer without
executing it.
That action is not supported in scripts, however, because scripters
expect more freedom in usage of white space.
I.e., scripters should be able to add blank lines wherever they
want to in their scripts-- and they can.
The problem is, defining variables or macros or performing exports
using multi-line SQL statements requires the multi-line SQL
statements in the edit buffer.
One way to do these commands into the buffer is to execute the
SQL command, but usually you do not want the SQL to execute until
expansion or execution time of the variable/macro/export.
The <span class="emphasis"><em>empty-line</em></span> method only works in
interactive mode.
What we use is
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_raw-sect" title="Raw Mode">Raw Mode</a>.
This works great both interactively and non-interactively, and it
supports
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_chunk-sect" title="Chunking">Chunking</a>
without having to format your SQL in a special way.
A great application of this is to put multi-line macro and
function definitions into your <code class="filename">auto.sql</code> file.
</p>
<p>
SqlTool system PL variables control behavior (for example, they
control many aspects of DSV importing and exporting).
User PL variables can be used to make your scripts dynamic and for
conditional actions.
Both system and user PL variables can be set by
<code class="literal">--setVar</code> and <code class="literal">-p</code> switches,
or PL commands in
<code class="literal">--sql</code> switches or SQL files (as well as in
<code class="filename">auto.sql</code> for interactive usage).
Since the variables are all global and shared across contexts, the
variables thus set effect behavior of all subsequence content in
<code class="literal">--sql</code> switches and SQL files
(and <code class="filename">auto.sql</code> and stdin for interactive usage).
See the
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_variables-sect" title="Variables">Variables</a> subsection for the particulars.
</p>
<div class="important" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Important: Remember to Commit">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Important]" src="../images/db/important.png"></td><th align="left">Remember to Commit</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
If you're doing data updates, remember to issue a commit command
or use the <code class="literal">--autoCommit</code> switch.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>
As you'll see, SqlTool has many features that are very
convenient for scripting. But what really makes it superior for
automation tasks (as compared to SQL tools from other vendors)
is the ability to reliably detect errors and to control JDBC
transactions.
SqlTool is designed so that you can reliably determine if errors
occurred within SQL scripts themselves, and from the invoking
environment (for example, from a Perl, Bash, or Python script,
or a simple cron tab invocation).
</p>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="sqltool_sqlswitch-sect"></a>Giving SQL on the Command Line</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
If you just have a couple Commands to run, you can run them
directly from the comand-line or from a shell script without an
SQL file, like this.
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="screen">java -jar $HSQLDB_HOME/lib/sqltool.jar --sql="SQL statement;" urlid</pre>
</div>
<p>
</p>
<div class="note" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Note">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Note]" src="../images/db/note.png"></td><th align="left">Note</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>The <code class="literal">--sql</code> switch automatically implies
<code class="literal">--noinput</code>, so if you want to execute the
specified SQL before <span class="emphasis"><em>and in addition to</em></span> an
interactive session (or stdin piping), then you must also give
the <span class="emphasis"><em>--stdinput</em></span> switch.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>
</p>
<p>
Since SqlTool transmits SQL statements to the database engine
only when a line is terminated with ";", if you want feedback
from multiple SQL statements in an --sql expression, you will
need to use functionality of your OS shell to include
linebreaks after the semicolons in the expression.
With any Bourne-compatible shell, you can include linebreaks in
the SQL statements like this.
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="screen"> java -jar $HSQLDB_HOME/lib/sqltool.jar --sql='
SQL statement number one;
* NEWVAR = something
\p A SqlTool Special command which echoes NEWVAR: *{NEWVAR}
number two;
SQL statement three;
' urlid</pre>
</div>
<p>
Notice that the <span class="emphasis"><em>SQL string</em></span> is not strictly
SQL, but SqlTool input, so it may contain Special or PL
commands.
The variable is set this way only for educational purposes.
The same thing could be accomplished more elegantly by using the
<code class="literal">-p</code> switch.
</p>
<div class="note" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Note">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Note]" src="../images/db/note.png"></td><th align="left">Note</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
The multi-line examples in this section will only work as-is
with a Bourne-compatible shell.
With some ugliness they can be converted to C shell.
For Windows, you are better off to stick with SQL files for
multi-line input.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>
If you don't need feedback, just separate the SQL commands
with semicolons and the entire expression will be
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_chunk-sect" title="Chunking">chunked</a>.
</p>
<p>
The <span class="emphasis"><em>--sql</em></span> switch is very useful for
setting shell variables to the output of SQL Statements, like
this.
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="programlisting"> # A shell script
USERCOUNT=`java -jar $HSQLDB_HOME/lib/sqltool.jar --sql='
select count(*) from usertbl;
' urlid` || {
# Handle the SqlTool error
}
echo "There are $USERCOUNT users registered in the database."
[ "$USECOUNT" -gt 3 ] && { # If there are more than 3 users registered
# Some conditional shell scripting</pre>
</div>
<p>
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="N10A09"></a>SQL Files</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
Just give paths to sql text file(s) on the command line after
the <span class="emphasis"><em>urlid</em></span>.
</p>
<p>
Often, you will want to redirect output to a file, like
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="screen"> java -jar $HSQLDB_HOME/lib/sqltool.jar urlid file.sql... > /tmp/file.log 2>&1</pre>
</div>
<p>
You can also execute SQL files from an interactive session with
the "\i"' Special Command,
but be aware that the default behavior in an interactive
session is to continue upon errors.
If the SQL file was written without any concern for error
handling, then the file will continue to execute after errors
occur.
You could run <code class="literal">\c false</code> before
<code class="literal">\i filename</code>, but then your SqlTool session
will exit if an error is encountered in the SQL file.
If you have an SQL file without error handling, and you want
to abort that file when an error occurs, but not exit
SqlTool, the easiest way to accomplish this is usually to add
<code class="literal">\c false</code> to the top of the script.
</p>
<p>
If you specify multiple SQL files on the command-line, the
default behavior is to exit SqlTool immediately if any of
the SQL files encounters an error.
</p>
<p>
<span class="bold"><strong>
SQL files themselves have ultimate control over error handling.
</strong></span>
Regardless of what command-line options are set, or what
commands you give interactively, if a SQL file contains error
handling statements, they will take precedence.
</p>
<p>
You can also use \i in SQL files to pull in (nest) additional
SQL files.
This is a powerful way to hierarchically maintain and
configuration manage a set of scripts for a product, project,
or database.
For encapsulation, tracking, and collaboration purposes, it's
usually best to keep each SQL script focused on one task or
goal, for example: creating a table, it's trigger, and loading
initial data from a DSV file.
Usually a set of such scripts will have to be executed in a
precise order so that referenced tables are created before
tables with foreign keys to them, etc.
I make a <span class="emphasis"><em>super-script</em></span> for every database
project that I manage.
Besides this strategy proving and configuration managing
an installation procedure known to work, I can recreate large
and complex, custom product databases for deployments or tests
in seconds.
With the addition of some very simple PL coding,
I can re-create all database structures in a parallel schema by
just specifying a schema name when I invoke the super-script.
</p>
<p>
Only for interactive SqlTool invocations, the file
<code class="filename">auto.sql</code> in your home directory will be
executed before your typed (or piped) input.
It is processed in the same way as a script file specified on the
command-line except that since you are running SqlTool
interactively, the interactive SqlTool rules will apply.
If your <code class="filename">auto.sql</code> does setup that you need
done for non-interactive SQL files, then add a
<code class="literal">\i ${user.home}/auto.sql</code> to the top of the
script, understanding that if you execute that script
interactively you will cause <code class="filename">auto.sql</code> to be
executed a second time, but see the following tip about
preventing that.
</p>
<div class="tip" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Tip:
Preventing redundant execution of utility or shared scripts.
">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Tip]" src="../images/db/tip.png"></td><th align="left">
Preventing redundant execution of utility or shared scripts.
</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
There's a common idiom used in UNIX login and shell
initialization scripts that prevents redundant executions, and it
works great for SqlTool too.
Think up a unique PL variable name which will keep track of
whether the script has been sourced in the current SqlTool
session, and the script will have no effect if called a 2nd,
3rd, etc. time.
This example applies the idiom to an <code class="filename">auto.sql</code>
file, but it can be used in any script that you want to prevent
superfluous executions in a developer-friendly way.
</p>
<pre class="programlisting"> * if (*AUTO_EXECUTED)
* break
* end if
* AUTO_EXECUTED = true</pre>
<p>
It would be slightly more efficient, but less reliable, to put
the test on the caller's side instead of the callee side, like
this:
</p>
<pre class="programlisting"> * if (! *AUTO_EXECUTED)
* \i ${user.home}/auto.sql
* end if</pre>
<p>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>
As you would probably guess, all of SQL's file commands (for
example loading or saving SQL scripts, binary data, DSV data)
take either relative or absolute file paths.
However, when you nest scripts, you will usually want to begin
your paths with the <code class="literal">@/</code>.
The initial <code class="literal">@</code> character in file paths means
<span class="emphasis"><em>the directory containing the current script</em></span>.
This is important because of Java's frustrating inability to
switch the current directory.
By using <code class="literal">@</code>, you can cross-reference between
SQL scripts in one or several co-located directories, and
everything will <span class="emphasis"><em>just work</em></span>, regardless of
your current directory when you invoke script(s).
</p>
<div class="tip" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Tip: Make use of @/ construct for CMD scripts with nesting
">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Tip]" src="../images/db/tip.png"></td><th align="left">Make use of @/ construct for CMD scripts with nesting
</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
If you use a managed set of nested scripts, you are advised to
prefix all relative file paths inside of SqlTool scripts with
<code class="literal">@/</code>. Without this, relative file paths would
be resolved relative to the invocation directory-- making your
scripts require a specific invocation directory.
The <span class="emphasis"><em>at character</em></span> will resolve to the
directory containing the current script.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>
You can use the following SQL file,
<code class="filename"><a class="filename" href="filelinks-app.html#sample.sql-link">
sample/sample.sql</a></code>,
from your HyperSQL distribution
<a href="sqltool-chapt.html#ftn.samplelocFn" class="footnoteref"><sup class="footnoteref">[1]</sup></a>.
It contains SQL as well as Special Commands making good
use of most of the Special Commands documented below.
</p>
<pre class="programlisting">/*
$Id: sample.sql 3637 2010-06-07 00:59:13Z unsaved $
Exemplifies use of SqlTool.
PCTASK Table creation
*/
/* Ignore error for these two statements */
\c true
DROP TABLE pctasklist;
DROP TABLE pctask;
\c false
\p Creating table pctask
CREATE TABLE pctask (
id integer identity,
name varchar(40),
description varchar(256),
url varchar(80),
UNIQUE (name)
);
\p Creating table pctasklist
CREATE TABLE pctasklist (
id integer identity,
host varchar(20) not null,
tasksequence int not null,
pctask integer,
assigndate timestamp default current_timestamp,
completedate timestamp,
show boolean default true,
FOREIGN KEY (pctask) REFERENCES pctask,
UNIQUE (host, tasksequence)
);
\p Granting privileges
GRANT select ON pctask TO public;
GRANT all ON pctask TO tomcat;
GRANT select ON pctasklist TO public;
GRANT all ON pctasklist TO tomcat;
\p Inserting test records
INSERT INTO pctask (name, description, url) VALUES (
'task one', 'Description for task 1', 'http://cnn.com');
INSERT INTO pctasklist (host, tasksequence, pctask) VALUES (
'admc-masq', 101, (SELECT id FROM pctask WHERE name = 'task one'));
commit;
</pre>
<p>
You can execute this SQL file with a Memory Only database with
a command like
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="programlisting"> java -jar $HSQLDB_HOME/lib/sqltool.jar --sql='
create user tomcat password "x";
' mem path/to/hsqldb/sample/sample.sql</pre>
</div>
<p>
This shows how you can mix SQL on the command line, and SQL inside
an SQL file.
</p>
<div class="note" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Note">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Note]" src="../images/db/note.png"></td><th align="left">Note</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
The example above uses Bourne shell syntax.
C shell syntax would be similar.
You would need to use an SQL file to accomplish this on Windows.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>
(The <code class="literal">--sql="create...;"</code> argument in the
example creates an account which the following script uses).
You should see error messages between the
<code class="literal">Continue-on-error...true</code> and
<code class="literal">Continue-on-error...false</code>. The script
purposefully runs commands that might fail there.
The reason the script does this is to perform
database-independent conditional table removals.
(The SQL clause <code class="literal">IF EXISTS</code> is more graceful
and succinct, so you may want to use that if you don't need to
support databases which don't support
<code class="literal">IF EXISTS</code>).
If an error occurs when continue-on-error is false, the
script would abort immediately.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="sqltool_scripting-sect"></a>Piping and shell scripting</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
You can of course, redirect output
<span class="emphasis"><em>from</em></span> SqlTool to a file
or another program.
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="screen">java -jar $HSQLDB_HOME/lib/sqltool.jar urlid file.sql > file.txt 2>&1
java -jar $HSQLDB_HOME/lib/sqltool.jar urlid file.sql 2>&1 | someprogram...</pre>
</div>
<p>
You can type commands in to SqlTool while being in
non-interactive mode by supplying "-" as the file name.
This is a good way to test how SqlTool will behave when
processing your SQL files.
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="screen"> java -jar $HSQLDB_HOME/lib/sqltool.jar urlid -</pre>
</div>
<p>
This is how you have SqlTool read its input from another
program:
</p>
<div class="example">
<a name="N10A9F"></a>
<p class="title">
<b>Example 1.2. Piping input into SqlTool</b>
</p>
<div class="example-contents">
<pre class="screen"> echo "Some SQL commands with '$VARIABLES';" |
java -jar $HSQLDB_HOME/lib/sqltool.jar urlid -</pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>
<br class="example-break">
</p>
<div class="example">
<a name="N10AA5"></a>
<p class="title">
<b>Example 1.3. Redirecting input into SqlTool</b>
</p>
<div class="example-contents">
<pre class="screen"> java -jar $HSQLDB_HOME/lib/sqltool.jar urlid - < myFile.sql</pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>
<br class="example-break">
For a shell not as graceful as the Bourne-compatible shells, you
would need to type this all on the same line (or use a
line-continuation trick).
</p>
<div class="warning" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Warning">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Warning]" src="../images/db/warning.png"></td><th align="left">Warning</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
Beware of null stdin to SqlTool (or SqlFile).
At least with Java 6 on UNIX, <code class="classname">System.in</code>
returns megabytes of garbage for reads if stdin is closed.
I consider this an obvious bug.
Therefore, unlike any other program you would invoke from scripts,
check stdin before running any Java program that will read from
it.
I consider this a big ugly bug in Java.
This is not just theoretical, because many remote execution
environments will have stdin closed off.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>
Make sure that you also read the
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_sqlswitch-sect" title="Giving SQL on the Command Line">Giving SQL on the Command Line</a>
section.
The <code class="literal">--sql</code> and <code class="literal">-p</code>
switches are great facilities to use with shell scripts.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="N10ABD"></a>Automation</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
SqlTool is ideal for mission-critical automation because,
unlike other SQL tools, SqlTool returns a dependable exit
status and gives you control over error handling and SQL
transactions.
Autocommit is off by default, so you can build a completely
dependable solution by intelligently using \c commands
(Continue upon Errors) and commit statements, and by
verifying exit statuses.
</p>
<p>
Using the SqlTool Procedural Language, you have ultimate
control over program flow, and you can use variables for
database input and output as well as for many other purposes.
See the <a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_pl-sect" title="SqlTool Procedural Language">SqlTool Procedural Language</a>
section.
</p>
<div class="tip" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Tip">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Tip]" src="../images/db/tip.png"></td><th align="left">Tip</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
Since SqlTool religiously returns meaningful exit status, you
can use the following idiom to send alerts about failed batch
jobs (for example, jobs started by cron, at, AutoSys, Quartz,
Hudson).
</p>
<div class="example">
<a name="N10ACB"></a>
<p class="title">
<b>Example 1.4. Error-handling Idiom</b>
</p>
<div class="example-contents">
<pre class="screen">java -jar $HSQLDB_HOME/lib/sqltool.jar urlid $HOME/app/myFile.sql >> $HOME/log/app.log 2>&1 ||
echo "See log file y:$HOME/log/app.log" | mailx -s "App aborted on host y" recip1@z.com recip2@z.com</pre>
</div>
</div>
<br class="example-break">
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="N10AD0"></a>Optimally Compatible SQL Files</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
If you want your SQL scripts optimally compatible among other
SQL tools, then don't use any Special or PL Commands.
SqlTool has default behavior which I think is far superior to
the other SQL tools, but you will have to disable these
defaults in order to have optimally compatible behavior.
</p>
<p>
These switches provide compatibility at the cost of poor
control and error detection.
</p>
<div class="itemizedlist">
<ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; ">
<li class="listitem">
<p class="simpara">
--continueOnErr=true
</p>
<p class="simpara">
The output will still contain error messages about
everything that SqlTool doesn't like
(malformatted commands, SQL command failures,
empty SQL commands), but SqlTool will continue to
run.
Errors will not cause rollbacks (but that won't
matter because of the following setting).
</p>
</li>
<li class="listitem">--autoCommit</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p>
</p>
<p>
You don't have to worry about accidental expansion of
PL variables, since SqlTool will never expand PL variables
if you don't set any variables on the command line, or give
any "* " PL commands.
(And you could not have "* " commands in a compatible SQL
file).
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="N10AE3"></a>Comments</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
Comments of the form <code class="literal">/*...*/</code> or
<code class="literal">--</code> behave as a SQL programmer would
expect, in all contexts other than in interactive
edit/history commands.
</p>
<p>
If a comment occurs outside of an SQL statement, SqlTool
will not send the comment to the database (to improve
performance).
Raw mode can be used to send just comments to the database.
In order to proactively catch accidents, SqlTool will complain
if you attempt to send an empty SQL statement (i.e., just
whitespace) to the database, even in raw mode.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="N10AF0"></a>Special Commands and Edit Buffer Commands in SQL Files</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
Generally, don't use Edit Buffer / History Commands in your
sql files, because they won't work.
Edit Buffer / History Commands are for interactive use only.
However, the important scripting commands
<code class="literal">* VARNAME :</code>,
<code class="literal">/: VARNAME</code>, <code class="literal">\x :</code>, and
<code class="literal">\xq :</code>, as well as
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_raw-sect" title="Raw Mode">Raw Mode</a>
do use the edit buffer.
</p>
<p>
You can, of course, use any SqlTool command at all
interactively.
The goal here is just to group together the commands most
useful to script-writers.
</p>
<div class="variablelist">
<table border="0" class="variablelist">
<colgroup>
<col valign="top" align="left">
<col>
</colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">\q [abort message]</span>
</p>
</td><td>
<p>
Be aware that the \q command will cause SqlTool to
completely exit.
If a script <code class="filename">x.sql</code> has a \q command in
it, then it doesn't matter if the script is executed like
</p>
<pre class="screen"> java -jar .../sqltool.jar urlid a.sql x.sql z.sql</pre>
<p>
or if you use
\i to read it in interactively, or if another SQL file
uses \i to nest it.
If \q is encountered, SqlTool will quit.
See the <a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_pl-sect" title="SqlTool Procedural Language">SqlTool Procedural Language</a>
section for commands to abort an SQL file (or even parts
of an SQL file) without causing SqlTool to exit.
</p>
<p>
\q takes an optional argument, which is an abort message.
If you give an abort message, the message is displayed to
the user and SqlTool will exit with a failure status.
If you give no abort message, then SqlTool will exit
quietly with successful status.
As a result, </p>
<pre class="programlisting"> \q</pre>
<p>
means to make an immediate but successful exit, whereas
</p>
<pre class="programlisting"> \q Message</pre>
<p>
means to abort immediately with error status.
Both commands will exit gracefully.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">\p [text to print]</span>
</p>
</td><td>
Print the given string to stdout.
Just give "\p" alone to print a blank line.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">\l SEVERITY_LEVEL text to log</span>
</p>
</td><td>
The logging subsystem will display and/or log and/or email
or whatever, depending on how you have it configured.
To see where messages go by default, just play with it
interactively.
Run "<code class="literal">\l?</code>" to list the available
severity levels.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">\i /path/to/file.sql</span>
</p>
</td><td>
Include another SQL file at this location.
You can use this to nest SQL files.
For database installation scripts I often have a master
SQL file which includes all of the other SQL files in the
correct sequence.
Be aware that the current continue-upon-error behavior
will apply to included files until such point as the SQL
file runs its own error handling commands.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">\o [file/path.txt]</span>
</p>
</td><td>
<p>
Tee output to the specified file (or stop doing so).
See the
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_report-sect" title="Generating Text or HTML Reports">Generating Text or HTML Reports</a>
section.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">\=</span>
</p>
</td><td>
A database-independent way to commit your SQL session.
Useful for database which have no <code class="literal">COMMIT</code>
SQL statement.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">\a [true|false]</span>
</p>
</td><td>
This turns on and off SQL transaction autocommits.
Auto-commit defaults to false, but you can change that
behavior by using the <code class="literal">--autoCommit</code>
command-line switch.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">\c [true|false]</span>
</p>
</td><td>
<p class="simpara">
A "true" setting tells SqlTool to Continue when errors are
encountered.
The current transaction will not be rolled back upon SQL
errors, so if \c is true, then run the
<code class="literal">ROLLBACK;</code> command yourself if that's
what you want to happen.
The default for interactive use is to continue upon error,
but the default for non-interactive use is to abort upon
error.
You can override this behavior by using the
<code class="literal">--continueOnErr</code> command-line switch.
</p>
<p class="simpara">
With database setup scripts, I usually find it convenient
to set "true" before dropping tables (so that things will
continue if the tables aren't there), then set it back to
false so that real errors are caught.
<code class="literal">DROP TABLE tablename IF EXISTS;</code>
is a more elegant, but less portable, way to accomplish
the same thing.
</p>
<div class="tip" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Tip">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Tip]" src="../images/db/tip.png"></td><th align="left">Tip</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
It depends on what you want your SQL files to do, of
course, but I usually want my SQL files to abort when
an error is encountered, without necessarily killing
the SqlTool session.
If this is the behavior that you want, then
put an explicit <code class="literal">\c false</code>
at the top of your SQL file and turn on
continue-upon-error only for sections where you really
want to permit errors, or where you are using PL
commands to handle errors manually.
This will give the desired behavior whether your
script is called by
somebody interactively, from the SqlTool command-line,
or included in another SQL file (i.e. nested).
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<div class="important" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Important">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Important]" src="../images/db/important.png"></td><th align="left">Important</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
The default settings are usually best for people who
don't want to put in any explicit \c or error handling
code at all.
If you run SQL files from the SqlTool command line,
then any errors will cause SqlTool to roll back and
abort immediately.
If you run SqlTool interactively and invoke SQL files
with \i commands, the scripts will continue to run
upon errors (and will not roll back).
This behavior was chosen because there are lots of
SQL files out there that produce errors which can be
ignored; but we don't want to ignore errors that a
user won't see.
I reiterate that any and all of this behavior can (and
often should) be changed by Special Commands run in
your interactive shell or in the SQL files.
Only you know whether errors in your SQL files can
safely be ignored.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="N10B6B"></a>Getting Interactive Functionality with SQL Files</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
Some script developers may run into cases where they want to
run with sql files but they also want SqlTool's interactive
behavior.
For example, they may want to do command recall in the sql file,
or they may want to log SqlTool's command-line prompts (which
are not printed in non-interactive mode).
In this case, do not give the sql file(s) as an argument to
SqlTool, but pipe them in instead, like
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="screen">java -jar $HSQLDB_HOME/lib/sqltool.jar urlid < filepath1.sql > /tmp/log.html 2>&1</pre>
</div>
<p>
or
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="screen">cat filepath1.sql... |
java -jar $HSQLDB_HOME/lib/sqltool.jar urlid > /tmp/log.html 2>&1</pre>
</div>
<p>
For a shell not as graceful as the Bourne-compatible shells, you
would need to type this all on the same line (or use a
line-continuation trick).
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="sqltool_charencoding-sect"></a>
Character Encoding</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
There are several levels of encoding settings.
First there are your platform defaults.
These can be changed, temporarily or permanently, with system
settings or environmental variables.
Java system properties may be used to change the encodings for
the JVM run.
Finally, can specify a different encoding in your RC file, as
documented in the
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_auth-sect" title="RC File Authentication Setup">RC File Authentication Setup</a>
section, though these will not effect stdin or stdout (as
explained there).
Programmatic users of <code class="classname">SqlFile</code> have
complete control over encoding by setting up
<code class="classname">Reader</code>s and
<code class="classname">PrintWriter</code>s,
or by using constructors with an <code class="literal">encoding</code>
parameter.
Developers should understand that where a
<code class="filename">SqlFile</code> constructor takes a
<code class="classname">Reader</code> or a
<code class="classname">PrintWriter</code> parameter, we will not apply
encoding settings to them, leaving that up to you.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="sqltool_report-sect"></a>Generating Text or HTML Reports</h2>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
This section is about making a file containing the output of
database queries.
You can generate reports by using operating system facilities
such as redirection, tee, and cutting and pasting.
But it is much easier to use the "\o" and "\h" special commands.
</p>
<div class="note" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Note">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Note]" src="../images/db/note.png"></td><th align="left">Note</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
HTML reporting has been drastically modernized.
It now has user-overridable boilerplates, flexible and safe
CSS styles, and PL variable substitution.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<div class="procedure">
<a name="N10BA2"></a>
<p class="title">
<b>Procedure 1.4. Writing query output to an external file</b>
</p>
<ol class="procedure" type="1">
<li class="step">
<p>
By default, everything will be done in plain text.
If you want your report to be in HTML format, then give the
special command <code class="literal">\h true</code>.
If you do so, you will probably want to use filenames with an
suffix of ".html" or ".htm" instead of ".txt" in the next step.
You must set HTML mode to true before running the
<code class="literal">\o</code> command of the next step, because this is
how the <code class="literal">\o</code> command knows to write the
opening HTML (header and such) to the file.
</p>
</li>
<li class="step">
<p>
Run the command <code class="literal">\o path/to/reportfile.txt</code>.
From this point on, output from your queries will be appended
to the specified file.
(I.e. another <span class="emphasis"><em>copy</em></span> of the output is
generated.)
This way you can continue to monitor or use output as usual as
the report is generated.
</p>
</li>
<li class="step">
<p>
When you want SqlTool to stop writing to the file, run
<code class="literal">\o</code> (or just quit SqlTool if you have no
other work to do).
If you are in HTML mode and you are finished writing the file
(i.e. you will not append to it again later), then close it
with <code class="literal">\oc</code> instead, to
</p>
</li>
<li class="step">
<p>
If you turned HTML mode on before and want to turn it off now,
run <code class="literal">\h false</code>.
</p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
<p>
It is not just the output of "SELECT" statements that will make
it into the report file, but...
</p>
<div class="itemizedlist">
<p class="title">
<b>Kinds of output that get teed to \o files</b>
</p>
<ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; ">
<li class="listitem">
Output of SELECT statements.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Output of all "\d" Special Commands.
(I.e., "\dt", "\dv", etc., and "\d OBJECTNAME").
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Output of "\p" Special Commands.
You will want to use this to add titles, and perhaps
spacing, for the output of individual queries.
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p>
Other output will go to your screen or stdout, but will not make
it into the report file.
Be aware that no error messages will go into the report file.
If SqlTool is run non-interactively (including if you give any
SQL file(s) on the command line), SqlTool will abort with an error
status if errors are encountered.
The right way to handle errors is to check the SqlTool exit status.
(The described error-handling behavior can be modified with
SqlTool command-line switches and Special Commands).
</p>
<div class="warning" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Warning">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Warning]" src="../images/db/warning.png"></td><th align="left">Warning</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
Remember that \o <span class="emphasis"><em>appends</em></span> to the named file.
If you want a new file, then use a new file name or remove the
pre-existing target file ahead of time.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<div class="tip" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Tip">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Tip]" src="../images/db/tip.png"></td><th align="left">Tip</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
So that I don't end up with a bunch of junk in my report file, I
usually leave \o off while I perfect my SQL. With \o off,
I perfect the SQL query until it produces on my screen exactly
what I want saved to file.
At this point I turn on \o and run ":/select/;" to repeat the
last SQL command containing the given string ("select" in this
example).
If I have several complex queries to run, I turn \o off and
repeat until I'm finished.
(Every time you turn \o on, it will append to the file, just
like we need).
</p>
<p>
Usually it doesn't come to mind that I need a wider screen until
a query produces lines that are too long.
In this case, stretch your window and repeat the last command with
the ":;" Edit Buffer Command.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>
HTML output has its own <code class="varname">*NULL_REP_HTML</code> setting
distinct from <code class="varname">*NULL_REP_TOKEN</code>.
It fulfils <code class="varname">*NULL_REP_TOKEN</code>'s output purpose of
saying how to represent SQL nulls retrieved from VARCHAR columns,
but lets you manage it for HTML separately from display and
CSV/DSV output.
</p>
<p>
Several new features have been added to HTML reporting between
revisions 4505 and 4606 inclusive.
All of the new features are explained in comments in the working,
sample SQL file below.
If you write your own top boilerplate fragment, you will probably
want to style the CSS classes written by SqlTool.
These class names all begin with <code class="literal">sqltool-</code>, to
avoid namespace collisions.
Just generate a sample report to see which what class names get
used.
</p>
<p>
</p>
<div class="mediaobject" align="center">
<img src="html-report.png" align="middle"><div class="caption">
<p>A HTML report</p>
</div>
</div>
<p>
The report above has a simple table dump and the basic column
definitions for that table.
You can, of course, make reports with any number of queries of any
level of sophistication.
The SQL file below generated this report.
</p>
<p>
Please study this example closely, because this is your principal
source of education about the specifics of creating HTML reports.
Notice the close at the very end with the explicit HTML-close
command <code class="literal">\oc</code>.
If you used just <code class="literal">\o</code>, the file would be closed but
the closing HTML code would not be written.
<code class="filename"><a class="filename" href="filelinks-app.html#html-report.sql-link">
csv-sample.sql</a></code>
<a href="sqltool-chapt.html#ftn.samplelocFn" class="footnoteref"><sup class="footnoteref">[1]</sup></a>.
</p>
<div class="example">
<a name="N10C0F"></a>
<p class="title">
<b>Example 1.5. Sample HTML Report Generation Script</b>
</p>
<div class="example-contents">
<pre class="programlisting">/*
* $Id: html-report.sql 4564 2011-10-19 04:27:37Z unsaved $
*
* Sample/Template for writing an HTML Report
*/
-- Populate sample data
create table t (i integer, vc varchar(20));
insert into t values(1, 'one');
insert into t values(2, 'two');
insert into t values(3, 'three');
insert into t values(4, 'four');
insert into t values(5, 'five');
commit;
-- IMPORTANT: \o will append by default. If you want to write a new file,
-- it's your responsibility to check that a file of the same name does not
-- already exist (or remove it).
-- Follow the following examples to use your own HTML fragment files.
-- * *TOP_HTMLFRAG_FILE = /tmp/top.html
-- * *BOTTOM_HTMLFRAG_FILE = /tmp/bottom.html
-- The default TOP_HTMLFRAG_FILE has a reference to this PL variable.
* REPORT_TITLE = Blaine's Sample Report
-- The default will also override its CSS style settings with your own if you
-- put them in a file named "overrides.css" in same directory alongside your
-- reports ("report.html" in this example).
-- You can add references to ${system.properties} and *{PL_VARIABLES} in
-- your own custom fragment files too.
-- Turn on HTML output mode.
-- Must enable HTML _before_ opening to write top frag.
\h true
\o report.html
\p A message to appear in the Report
SELECT * FROM t;
-- Close off output just to show that you can go back and forth.
-- A close with '\o' will not write the bottom boilerplate that closes the HTML.
\o
\h false
\p Some non-HTML non-Report output:
SELECT count(*) FROM t;
\h true
-- Re-open the report
\o report.html
\d t
-- This time close it with
\oc
</pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>
<br class="example-break">
One thing that I chose not to exemplify in the example, so as not to
scare away less technical users, is that you can use the
<code class="literal">\p</code> variant command <code class="literal">\pr</code>.
When you give a <code class="literal">\p</code> command in HTML mode, SqlTool
formats the output into a paragraph.
But coders may want to write HTML, Javascript, JSP, or similar code,
and SqlTool should treat this as <span class="emphasis"><em>Raw</em></span> to be
written as-is to the report file.
This is what <code class="literal">\p</code> accomplishes.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="sqltool_binary_files-sect"></a>
Storing and Retrieving Binary Files</h2>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
You can upload binary files such as photographs, audio files,
or serialized Java objects into database columns.
SqlTool keeps one binary buffer which you can load from files
with the \bl command, or from a database query by doing a
one-row query for any non-displayable type (including
<code class="literal">BLOB</code>, <code class="literal">OBJECT</code>, and
<code class="literal">OTHER</code>).
In the latter case, the data returned for the first
non-displayable column of the first result row will be stored
into the binary buffer.
</p>
<p>
Once you have data in the binary buffer, you can upload it
to a database column (including <code class="literal">BLOB</code>,
<code class="literal">OBJECT</code>, and <code class="literal">OTHER</code> type
columns), or save it to a file.
The former is accomplished by the special command \bp followed
by a <span class="emphasis"><em>prepared</em></span> SQL query containing one
question mark place-holder to indicate where the data gets
inserted.
The latter is accomplished with the \bd command.
</p>
<p>
You can also store the output from normal, displayable column
into the binary buffer by using the special command \b.
The very first column value from the first result row of the
next SQL command will be stored to the binary byte buffer.
</p>
<div class="example">
<a name="N10C44"></a>
<p class="title">
<b>Example 1.6. Inserting binary data into database from a file</b>
</p>
<div class="example-contents">
<pre class="programlisting"> \bl /tmp/favoritesong.mp3
\bp
INSERT INTO musictbl (id, stream) VALUES(3112, ?);</pre>
</div>
</div>
<br class="example-break">
<div class="example">
<a name="N10C49"></a>
<p class="title">
<b>Example 1.7. Downloading binary data from database to a file</b>
</p>
<div class="example-contents">
<pre class="programlisting"> SELECT stream FROM musictbl WHERE id = 3112;
\bd /tmp/favoritesong.mp3</pre>
</div>
</div>
<br class="example-break">
<p>
You can also store and retrieve text column values to/from
ASCII files, as documented in the
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_interactive_pl_commands-sect" title="PL Commands">
Essential PL Command</a>
section.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="sqltool_pl-sect"></a>SqlTool Procedural Language</h2>
</div>
<div>
<h3 class="subtitle">Aka PL</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
Most importantly, run <code class="filename">SqlTool</code> interactively
and give the "<code class="literal">*?</code>" command to see what PL
commands are available to you.
I've tried to design the language features to be intuitive.
Readers experience with significant shell scripting in any
language can probably learn the rudiments by
looking at (and running!) the sample script
<code class="filename"><a class="filename" href="filelinks-app.html#pl.sql-link">
sample/pl.sql</a></code> in your HyperSQL distribution
<a href="sqltool-chapt.html#ftn.samplelocFn" class="footnoteref"><sup class="footnoteref">[1]</sup></a> and then pick up everything
else by using the <code class="varname">*?</code> command from within an
interactive SqlTool session.
(By <span class="emphasis"><em>significant</em></span> shell scripting, I mean to the
extent of using variables, for loops, etc.).
</p>
<p>
It generally causes an error to reference a variable that has not
been set.
SqlTool will always attempt to de-reference PL variable and Java
system property references, except for (a) in : commands, and
(b) in SQL statements if no user PL variable has been set.
Since you should never be trying to dereference a PL variable if
none have been set, the practical implications are just: If you
want Java system properties to be de-referenced, just make sure
that any PL user variable is set;
and if you have strings like <code class="literal">${this}</code> appear in
your SQL text (which you do not want expanded), unset all user PL
variables before executing that text (if any have been set earlier).
The purpose of this system is to avoid changing user-specified SQL
without the user knowing it.
People who don't use PL at all don't have to worry about strings
getting accidentally expanded.
</p>
<p>
PL is also used to upload and download column values to/from
local ASCII files, analogously to the special \b commands
for binary files.
This is explained above in the Interactive
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_interactive_pl_commands-sect" title="PL Commands">
Essential PL Command</a>
section above.
</p>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="sqltool_nullempty-sect"></a>Nulls and Empty Strings</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
I am raising this PL variable topic out of order here because it
is important to understand, and I'd like you to have the concept
firmly in mind before digging into other details about variables.
In this sub-section I am only talking about PL variable values
(not system properties or SQL engine variables, etc.).
</p>
<p>
Very similarly to Java system properties, if the value of a
PL variable is null, then the variable is
<span class="emphasis"><em>unset</em></span>;
and (if you set the <code class="literal">sqltool.REMOVE_EMPTY_VARS</code>
mode as suggested) there is no way to directly assign a variable
to null.
If, for example, you ran </p>
<pre class="screen">
* MYVAR = null</pre>
<p>that would assign the string value of
<code class="literal">null</code> to your variable, not the real null value.
If a variable is assigned null indirectly, say by fetching a null
cell value into a variable, or when variable <code class="literal">?</code>
is assigned null due to a SQL failure, this action is entirely
equivalent to unsetting the variable.
</p>
<div class="important" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Important: Recap">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Important]" src="../images/db/important.png"></td><th align="left">Recap</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
If a variable is unset, or has never yet been set, then
that variable's value is null.
If a variable's value is null, then the variable is unset.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>
You can assign a PL variable the empty string value by using a
command switch <code class="literal">-P</code> or <code class="literal">--setVar</code>.
For example
</p>
<pre class="screen">java -jar .../sqltool.jar -Pvarname= urlid script.sql</pre>
<p>
You can see it's an empty string by echoing the value:
</p>
<pre class="screen">\p One*{varname}Two
OneTwo</pre>
<p>
With the next minor release of SqlTool, or now if you set Java
system property <code class="literal">sqltool.REMOVE_EMPTY_VARS</code> to
<code class="literal">false</code>, that you can use the vanilla PL
assignment command to assign empty values like this:
</p>
<pre class="screen">* MYVAR =</pre>
<p>
</p>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h4 class="title">
<a name="N10CAF"></a>Distinguishing Nulls from Empty Strings</h4>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
You can't use the simplest Special Command <code class="literal">\p</code>
to distinguish null variables, because (a) It is an error to
expand an unset/null value with the <code class="literal">${x}</code>
construct, and the alternative <code class="literal">${:x}</code> is safe
but displays null values as if they were empty strings-- thereby
not distinguishing.
But don't fear. There are easy ways.
</p>
<p>
Unset/null variables are not listed by the commands
<code class="literal">* list</code> or <code class="literal">* listvalues</code>.
Therefore, say you want to know if variable
<code class="varname">MYVAR</code> is set or not (stated differently,
whether it is non-null or null). Run </p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="screen">
* list MYVAR</pre>
</div>
<p>.
If it lists the variable then it is set and is not null.
</p>
<p>
You can use the <code class="literal">* if</code> command to compare your
variable to the null value or to the empty string.
The first test here will tell you if <code class="varname">MYVAR</code> is
equal to null (by comparing it to reserved PL variable
<code class="literal">*NULL</code>).
The second test here compares <code class="varname">MYVAR</code> to a
variable that you assigned the empty string to earlier.
</p>
<div class="example">
<a name="N10CDA"></a>
<p class="title">
<b>Example 1.8. Explicit null and empty-string Tests</b>
</p>
<div class="example-contents">
<pre class="screen"> java -jar .../sqltool.jar -pEMPTYSTRING=
....
* if (*MYVAR == **NULL)
\p MYVAR really is null
* end if
* if (*MYVAR == EMPTYSTING)
\p MYVAR is now an empty string
* end if</pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>
<br class="example-break">
</p>
<p>
Definitely study the
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_specialqplus-ex" title="Example 1.9. Special values for ?, and _ (or ~) Variables">Special values for ?, and _ (or ~) Variables</a>
example.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="sqltool_variables-sect"></a>Variables</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>Following subsections explain important things about
specific variable types.
Here we just list the variable types and give a few points about
variable usage generally.
</p>
<div class="variablelist">
<p class="title">
<b>Variable Types</b>
</p>
<table border="0" class="variablelist">
<colgroup>
<col valign="top" align="left">
<col>
</colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">Database/SQL Variables</span>
</p>
</td><td>
SqlTool has no control over variable mechanisms provided by
the SQL implementation or database vendor.
You can use such constructs only in SQL commands, since the
other command types never reach the database engine.
Nothing else that we have to say about manuals applies to
database/SQL variables.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">Java System Properties</span>
</p>
</td><td>
SqlTool allows for reading but not writing of these variables
with <code class="literal">${varname}</code> and
<code class="literal">* listsysprops</code>.
To prevent your SQL text from being changed unintentionally,
<code class="literal">${varname}</code> occurrences will not be expanded
inside of SQL statements unless at least one PL user variable
has been set.
Therefore, if executing portable SQL scripts (and by default),
SqlTool will not expand
<code class="literal">${varname}</code>s inside of SQL statements.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">PL User Variables</span>
</p>
</td><td>
These variables have names beginning with a letter and (if the
name is longer than one character) any number of letter, digit,
or _ characters.
The letters are case-specific.
Two examples are <code class="literal">m</code>
and <code class="literal">MY_VAR</code>.
There variables are created and assigned values on the
SqlTool command-line or with any of several PL assignment
commands listed by the <code class="literal">* ?</code> command.
Depending on context (see below about that), they are
referenced as <code class="literal">*{MY_VAR}</code>,
as <code class="literal">*MY_VAR</code>, or as <code class="literal">MY_VAR</code>.
You can display all current user (and SqlTool system) variables
with the PL command <code class="literal">* listvalues</code>.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">SqlTool System PL Variables</span>
</p>
</td><td>
These are PL variables just like PL user variables, but the
variable names begin with the <code class="literal">*</code> character,
like <code class="varname">*DSV_TARGET_FILE</code>, and they effect
SqlTool system behavior.
Some of these are initialized by SqlTool automatically.
You can change and examine the values in the same way as PL
user variables.
See the following subsection about System PL Variables for
details.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">Reserved PL Variable ?</span>
</p>
</td><td>
The ? variable is set automatically to the results of SQL
statement executions.
The reset state is the empty string, and it is only ever set to
null (aka <span class="emphasis"><em>unset</em></span>) if an SQL error was
encountered.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">*PL variables NULL and *NULL</span>
</p>
</td><td>
These are actually reserved system and user PL variables, and
since they are very unique and interchangeable with one another,
I'm giving them their own bullet.
These are reserved PL variables which always have the value of
null (which has the meaning of <span class="emphasis"><em>unset</em></span>.
You can compare other variables to <code class="varname">*NULL</code>
or <code class="literal">NULL</code> to see if they are set or not.
A specific application is to compare <span class="emphasis"><em>?</em></span> to
<span class="emphasis"><em>*NULL</em></span> or <span class="emphasis"><em>NULL</em></span> to see
if the last SQL command has failed.
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<div class="itemizedlist">
<p class="title">
<b>General Rules for PL vars and Java system props</b>
</p>
<ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; ">
<li class="listitem">
PL variables and Java system properties are always
expanded in Special, and (most) PL commands if they are
written like <code class="literal">*{VARNAME}</code> and
<code class="literal">${VARNAME}</code> correspondingly.
They are expanded in the same way inside of SQL
statements as long as one (or more)
PL variable has been set.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Your SQL scripts can give good feedback by displaying the
value of variables with the "\p" Special command.
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h4 class="title">
<a name="sqltool_plsys_variables-sect"></a>System PL Variables</h4>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="important" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Important">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Important]" src="../images/db/important.png"></td><th align="left">Important</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
Definitely run command <code class="literal">* ?</code> to view
in-program help about referencing PL variables, and run
<code class="literal">* ? assign</code> if you will be assigning
variables.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>
SqlTool automatically assign values to a few special system
variables.
As I write this, the special variables are only
<code class="varname">*START_TIME</code>, <code class="varname">*REVISION</code>,
<code class="varname">*TIMESTAMP</code>.
<code class="varname">*START_TIME</code> is a date and time string
formatted for the user's locale.
<code class="varname">*REVISION</code> is SqlTool's version string
(i.e., it is not a valid real or integer number).
<code class="varname">*TIMESTAMP</code> is a user-configurable
date or time string configurable with another system variable
<code class="varname">*TIMESTAMP_FORMAT</code>.
</p>
<p>
SqlTool System PL variables are the mechanism used to configure SqlTool
behavior.
You can list all <span class="emphasis"><em>set</em></span> PL variables by running the
SqlTool command <code class="literal">* listvalues</code>.
If a SqlTool System variable is not shown, then it is
<span class="emphasis"><em>unset</em></span> (which is equivalent to
<span class="emphasis"><em>non-null</em></span>).
But if a system variable is not set, that doesn't mean that the setting
behavior will be <span class="emphasis"><em>unset</em></span>, but rather that the
<span class="emphasis"><em>default behavior</em></span> will apply.
For example, if you <code class="literal">* listvalues</code> and the variable
<code class="varname">*DSV_COL_DELIM</code> is not listed, that doesn't mean that
there will be no DSV column delimiter, but that the default DSV column
delimiter will be used.
The in-program help can be used to determine what the default behavior is.
(In the case of <code class="varname">*DSV_COL_DELIM</code>, you can see the default
behavior by running <code class="varname">\x?</code>.
</p>
<p>
<span class="bold"><strong>
See the list of system variables in the <a class="link" href="systempls-app.html" title="Appendix A. SqlTool System PL Variables">SqlTool System PL Variables</a>
appendix.
</strong></span>
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h4 class="title">
<a name="sqltool_pl_variables-sect"></a>PL Variables</h4>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
This subsection explains points common to most or all of the
PL variable varieties (all variables other than Database/SQL
and Java system properties).
</p>
<p>
The new <code class="literal">-p</code> switch is an easy and elegant way
to set PL variables when you know the needed values at SqlTool
invocation time.
This is a more user-friendly variant of the
<code class="literal">--setVar</code> switch.
The primary benefit is that you can specify multiple variable
assignments using multiple <code class="literal">-p</code> switches,
eliminating the need to separate <code class="literal">name=value</code>
elements with commas (doing this necessitates the usage of
<code class="literal">\,</code> escapes when there are commas in your
intended variable values).
The most basic usage is like <code class="literal">-PNAME=value</code>,
but there are a few things to know to make this feature more
useful.
Firstly, the space after <code class="literal">-p</code> is optional, so
you can write either <code class="literal">-PNAME=value</code> or
<code class="literal">-P NAME=value</code>.
Secondly, the '<code class="literal">p</code>' itself is case-insensitive.
You may choose to always user upper-case or always lower-case
to be consistent.
But if you do not put space after the p, I recommend that you
change the capitalization of the p to more easily distinguish
your variable names, like <code class="literal">-pVARNAME=x</code> and
<code class="literal">-Pvarname=y</code>.
</p>
<div class="itemizedlist">
<ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; ">
<li class="listitem">
<p>
PL variables are global to a SqlTool invocation and are
therefore shared among
</p>
<div class="itemizedlist">
<ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: circle; ">
<li class="listitem">
<code class="literal">--setVar</code> command-line switches.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
<code class="literal">-P</code> or <code class="literal">-p</code>
command-line switches.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
<code class="literal">--sql</code> command-line switches.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
<code class="filename">auto.sql</code> file, if it is
present and the rules call for it to load.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
SQL files loaded with \i from top or a nested level.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
standard input whether from a terminal, redirection,
or piping
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p>
The variable must, of course, be set at a point in time
before it is referenced.
</p>
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Use the <code class="literal">* list</code> command to list some or
all variables; or <code class="literal">* listvalues</code> to also
see the values.
(Exception: The *EXCEPTION variable can not be displayed
with the list commands).
</li>
<li class="listitem">
<p>
<span class="bold"><strong>Assignment</strong></span>
</p>
<div class="tip" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Tip: A Mnemonic">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Tip]" src="../images/db/tip.png"></td><th align="left">A Mnemonic</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
The mnemonic distinction between assignment commands
<code class="literal">* VARNAME _ </code> and
<code class="literal">* VARNAME ~ </code> is that the latter shows
the output, which you can think of as looking like ~
on your computer display.
See the in-program help (<code class="literal">*?</code>) about
the purpose and usage of these two commands.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>
</p>
<p class="simpara">
Run the <code class="literal">* ?</code> command to see a list of
commands that you can use to assign and to unset PL
variables.
The most simple assignment command is
<code class="literal">* VARNAME = Var value</code>, but you can
assign values from command output, query return values,
contents of files, mathematical expressions, the edit
buffer, etc.
</p>
<p class="simpara">
Only the
<code class="literal">* VARNAME :</code> assignment variant
supports assigning a multi-line SQL statement(s) as body.
To populate the edit buffer with your multi-line SQL
query for the : assignment, you must execute the SQL
command before (usually undesirable), or end the SQL with
a blank line instead of a <code class="literal">;</code> only works
interactively), or use <a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_raw-sect" title="Raw Mode">Raw Mode</a>.
</p>
</li>
<li class="listitem">
You can also set PL variables other than ? using the
<code class="literal">--setVar</code> and
<code class="literal">-P</code> (also usable as
<code class="literal">-p</code>) command-line switches.
I give a very brief but useful example of this below.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
You can unset (remove) PL variables using
the <code class="literal">* - VARNAME</code> command.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
It is an error in a Special and most PL commands to
expand an <span class="emphasis"><em>unset</em></span>
(remove) variable with <code class="literal">*{VARNAME}</code> or
<code class="literal">${VARNAME}</code>.
Therefore, if the variable/property may not be set, just
add a colon like
<code class="literal">*{:VARNAME}</code>
or <code class="literal">${:VARNAME}</code> to
expand the variable if set, but expand to a zero-length
string if the variable is not set.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Inside of logical expressions (like inside of
<code class="literal">if</code> and <code class="literal">while</code> commands),
reference variables like <code class="literal">*VARNAME</code>, i.e.
without the curly brace, and don't worry about a construct like
<code class="literal">${:VARNAME}</code> because it is legal to compare
unset variables (all unset variables are equal to one another).
The justfication for this simplification is explained below.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
The assignee variable name, and variables inside of
mathematical expressions are written simply as bare words.
For example: "<code class="literal">* VARNAME = Var value</code>
(<code class="literal">*</code> there is a command prefix-- not part of
the variable specifier) and
"<code class="literal">* ((VARNAME = OTHER_VARNAME * 6))</code>".
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p>
PL commands can be used to upload and download column
values to/from local ASCII files, but the corresponding actions
for binary files use the special \b commands.
This is because PL variables are used for ASCII values and
you can store any number of column values in PL variables.
This is not true for binary column values.
The \b commands work with a single binary byte buffer.
</p>
<p>
See the <a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_pl-sect" title="SqlTool Procedural Language">SqlTool Procedural Language</a>
section below for information on using variables in other ways,
and information on the other PL commands and features.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h4 class="title">
<a name="N10E7C"></a>PL ? Variable</h4>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
You don't set the ? variable.
It is much like the Bourne shell variable $? in that it is
always automatically set to the first value of a result set
(or the return value of other SQL commands).
It works very similarly to the <code class="literal">* VARNAME ~</code>
and <code class="literal">* VARNAME ~</code> assignment commands,
but the value of ? is set automatically without you doing
anything.
You can, of course, dereference ? like any PL variable or view
it with <code class="literal">* list</code> or
<code class="literal">* listvalues</code>.
If you are running interactively or have turned on
<code class="literal">\c</code> (continue-upon-error), you should be
prepared that <code class="literal">?</code> could get unset by SQL
failures and thereby cause <code class="literal">*{?}</code>
references to fail.
(In which case the list commands still work, you can check it
with an <code class="literal">* if</code> comparison, and the
<code class="literal">*{:?}</code> construct will be safe (though this
last does not show you the difference between empty string and
null).
The important thing to remember about the list commands is
that variables that are not listed are
<span class="emphasis"><em>unset</em></span> (i.e., are null).
</p>
<p>
<code class="literal">?</code> is reliably set to null only upon SQL
failures.
Upon SqlTool startup, <code class="literal">?</code> is set to the
empty string "" instead of being unset or null.
If a query returns a null value in the last cell, then
<code class="literal">?</code> will be assigned to the current
<code class="varname">*DSV_NULL_REP</code> value instead of the literal
null value.
Therefore if you enable continue-on-error with
<code class="literal">\c true</code> (or in interactive mode when this is
the default... though I can't think of how this could be useful
interactively), you can test for SQL failures with
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="programlisting"> * if (*? == *NULL)</pre>
</div>
<p>
(<code class="varname">*NULL</code> is a reserved PL variable that always
has the value of null, which means <span class="emphasis"><em>unset</em></span>).
</p>
<p>
The important functional difference between variables assigned
with <code class="literal">VARNAME _</code>
or <code class="literal">VARNAME ~</code>
vs. <code class="literal">?</code> is that the latter is always set to
the last SQL cell value fetched (or return value for
non-result-set SQL).
Explicit assignments with <code class="literal">_</code>
or <code class="literal">~</code> are made from the very next cell
content retrieved after the <code class="literal">_</code>
or <code class="literal">~</code> command (or return value for
non-result-set SQL).
Easier to show what I mean than to explain it...
</p>
<div class="example">
<a name="sqltool_specialqplus-ex"></a>
<p class="title">
<b>Example 1.9. Special values for ?, and _ (or ~) Variables</b>
</p>
<div class="example-contents">
<pre class="screen">sql> \p At startup ? is equal to empty string. See between A and B: A*{?}B
At startup ? is equal to empty string. See between A and B: AB
sql> * if (A*{?}B == AB) \p ? is the empty string
? is the empty string
sql>
sql> CREATE TABLE t(i INTEGER, vc VARCHAR(20));
sql> INSERT INTO t VALUES(1, 'one');
1 row updated.
sql> INSERT INTO t VALUES(2, 'two');
1 row updated.
sql> * res ~
sql> SELECT * FROM t;
I VC
- ---
1 one
2 two
Fetched 2 rows.
sql> \p *{?}
two
sql> \p *{res}
1
sql> * listvalues ? res
Listing all 'set' variables (any var not seen is unset and equal to null).
The outermost parentheses are not part of the values.
?: (two)
res: (1)
sql>
sql> INSERT INTO t VALUES (3, null);
1 row updated.
sql> *res ~
sql> SELECT vc FROM t WHERE i = 3;
[null]
sql> \p *{?}
[null]
sql> * if (*res == **NULL) \p res really is null
res really is null
sql> * listvalues ? res
Listing all 'set' variables (any var not seen is unset and equal to null).
The outermost parentheses are not part of the values.
?: ([null])
sql>
sql> -- This will prevent SqlTool from aborting when we run a bad SQL statement:
sql> \c true
Continue-on-error is set to true.
sql> *res ~
sql> SELECT hocus FROM pocus;
SEVERE SQL Error at '<stdin>' line 23:
"SELECT hocus FROM pocus"
user lacks privilege or object not found: POCUS
sql> * if (*? == **NULL) \p ? really is null
? really is null
SEVERE Did not finish setting variable 'res' before a code block exited.
SEVERE Rolling back SQL transaction.
sql> * if (*res == **NULL) \p res really is null
res really is null
sql> * listvalues ? res
Listing all 'set' variables (any var not seen is unset and equal to null).
The outermost parentheses are not part of the values.
sql></pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>
<br class="example-break">
(The SQL that generated this is available in the file
<code class="filename">nullempty.sql</code> in the
<code class="filename">sample</code> directory of your HyperSQL
distribution.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="sqltool_macro-sect"></a>Macros</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
Macros are just shortcut commands that you can run in place of
the full commands which they stand for.
Macros stand for SQL, Special or PL commands, whereas PL
variables can only be used for elements within a command.
It is very easy to define, list, and use macros.
Run the command "/?" to see how.
If you often run a particular query, then for the effort of
about 5 extra keystrokes, you can define a macro for it so
that you can enter just "/q;" to run it, whether the original
query is 1 line or 40 lines. (You can use any name in place
of "q", and the target command can be any kind of SQL,
special, or PL command).
</p>
<p>
When you run/use a macro, you can append to the macro value.
<span class="emphasis"><em>appendage</em></span> in the "/?" listing shows
where you can append additional text to the original command.
So, if you define
</p>
<pre class="programlisting"> sql> /= myworkers SELECT name FROM employees</pre>
<p>
, you could narrow the query variously during different macro
invocations, like
</p>
<pre class="programlisting"> sql> /myworkers WHERE dept = 20;
sql> /myworkers WHERE name like 'Karen%';</pre>
<p>
</p>
<p>
Just like when recalling a command from history, you use ";"
to execute even Special and PL macro commands.
</p>
<pre class="programlisting"> sql> /= notate \p Work completed by
sql> /notate Blaine;</pre>
<p>
If you don't type the ;, you will just recall the command
to the buffer (from which you can execute or edit it, if
you wish to).
</p>
<p>
To make a macro for a mult-line SQL statement, you use the
"/: name" construct.
First, get the target command into the command buffer.
If you have already run the command, then run ":h" to see the
command number and load it to the buffer like ":13".
If you haven't run the command yet, then just enter the
command, but end it with a blank line (and no semi-colon).
You can check the buffer with ":b" to make sure it is what
you want.
Then just run "/: name" to define a macro with name "name".
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="N10EF8"></a>SqlTool Functions</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
SqlTool functions are macros which take positional parameters.
They are functions in the shell-programming sense.
They do not return values in the sense of functions as
distinguished from procedures or methods.
As the <code class="literal">/?</code> in-program help shows, they can be
defined by literal assignment or by buffer contents, and optional
appendages work as one would want-- just like regular macros.
They are intuitive to define and use, so one example should be
all the instruction needed.
</p>
<p>
</p>
<div class="example">
<a name="N10F02"></a>
<p class="title">
<b>Example 1.10. Creating a SqlTool Function</b>
</p>
<div class="example-contents">
<pre class="programlisting">\.
INSERT INTO t(i, vc) VALUES(*{1}, '*{2}');
SELECT * FROM t
WHERE i = *{1}
.
/: writeread() AND audited is null</pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>
<br class="example-break">
This is a non-trivial example where we insert into a table with
some automatically generated columns, and we want to see the
entire created record before deciding whether to commit the
new record.
Since what we want to do will take multiple lines of SQL, and
indeed 2 SQL statements, we use raw mode to write the multi-line
SQL statement to the edit buffer, then use the
<code class="literal">/: MACRONAME [appendage]</code> construct to define
a macro with body of the previous edit buffer contents.
As described elsewhere, if you want to do this in a SQL file
(as opposed to interactively), you have to use raw mode as we
have done here.
Just by assigning a name ending with <code class="literal">()</code> we
have made a function instead of a regula macro.
Notice how we used positional parameters references
<code class="literal">*{1}</code>
and <code class="literal">*{2}</code> in the macro body.
We wanted to add a little to what was in the edit buffer, so we
added an appendage to the <code class="literal">/:</code> command.
Note the extra space after <code class="literal">()</code> or we would have
ended up with resulting body of
"<code class="literal">... i = *{1}AND audited...</code>".
</p>
<p>
</p>
<div class="example">
<a name="N10F1F"></a>
<p class="title">
<b>Example 1.11. Invoking a SqlTool Function</b>
</p>
<div class="example-contents">
<pre class="programlisting">/writeread(10, ten);</pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>
<br class="example-break">
Not much to explain.
Though the second character is for a string value to insert
into the a varchar column, we wrote the function so that the
function body supplies the single-quotes instead of having to
type them in ever time we use the function.
Leading and trailing white space is trimmed from each parameter.
So if you want your value to have leading or trialing space,
you will have to type in the quotes at invocation time.
Another limitation caused by this convenient parsing is that
functions just won't work when your invocation parameters need
to contain commas.
Just like for regular macros, the terminating ; causes the
expanded macro to execute.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="N10F25"></a>PL Sample</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
Here is a short SQL file that gives the specified user write
permissions on some application tables.
</p>
<div class="example">
<a name="N10F2A"></a>
<p class="title">
<b>Example 1.12. Simple SQL file using PL</b>
</p>
<div class="example-contents">
<pre class="programlisting"> /*
grantwrite.sql
Run SqlTool like this:
java -jar path/to/sqltool.jar -pUSER=debbie grantwrite.sql
*/
/* Explicitly turn on PL variable expansion, in case no variables have
been set yet. (Only the case if user did not set USER).
*/
GRANT all ON book TO *{USER};
GRANT all ON category TO *{USER};</pre>
</div>
</div>
<br class="example-break">
<p>
Note that this script will work for any (existing) user just
by supplying a different user name on the command-line.
I.e., no need to modify the tested and proven script.
There is no need for a <code class="literal">commit</code> statement
in this SQL file since no DML is done.
If the script is accidentally run without setting the
USER variable, SqlTool will give a very clear notification of
that.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="sqltool_logical-sect"></a>Logical Expressions</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
Logical expressions occur only inside of logical expression
parentheses in PL statements.
For example, <code class="literal">if (*var1 > astring)</code> and
<code class="literal">while (*checkvar)</code>.
(The parentheses after "foreach" do not enclose a logical
expression, they just enclose a list).
</p>
<p>
Spaces are not allowed in elements of logical expressions.
These are examples of illegal logical expressions:
<code class="literal">* while (two words)</code>,
<code class="literal">* if (*x == two words)</code>.
You can certainly do what you want to do, however, by using
variables to hold multi-word strings.
You can achieve the goals for the two previous attempts with
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="screen"> *tmpVar = two words
* while (*tmpVar)
...
* if (*x == *tmpVar)</pre>
</div>
<p>
It is critically important here to use
<code class="literal">*tmpvar</code> instead of
<code class="literal">*{tmpvar}</code> in this situation, because
<code class="literal">*{...}</code> would not delay expansion and would
therefore be equivalent to entering the multiple words.
</p>
<p>
SqlTool's logical expressions are purposefully minimalistic.
We do not support nested operations or mixing with
assignment commands.
Notice that there are no <code class="literal">||</code>,
<code class="literal">&&</code>, <code class="literal">AND</code>, or
<code class="literal">OR</code> operations in the table below.
You can not assign the value of a boolean expression directly.
You can achieve that goal with an <code class="literal">* while</code>
and mathematical assignments.
</p>
<p>
As stated earlier, inside of logical expressions you should
normally reference PL variables without curly braces.
This syntatic simplification is allowed because multi-word
tokens are not allowed in logical expressions
(therefore {...} is not needed to group words).
For example, "<code class="literal">word"</code>, "<code class="literal">>"</code>,
and "<code class="literal">*VARNAME"</code> are all separate atoms.
</p>
<p>
You can indeed use the curly format like
"<code class="literal">*{THIS}</code>" inside of logical expressions, but
the casual user should stick to "<code class="literal">*THIS</code>".
There is a difference between
<code class="literal">*{VARNAME}</code> and <code class="varname">*VARNAME</code>
inside logical expressions.
<code class="literal">*{VARNAME}</code> is expanded one time when the
parser first encounters the logical expression.
<code class="varname">*VARNAME</code> is re-expanded every time that the
expression is evaluated.
So, you would never want to code
<code class="literal">* while (*{X} < 5)</code> because the statement
will always be true or always be false.
(I.e. the following block will loop infinitely or will never
run).
Another difference between <code class="literal">*{VARNAME}</code>
and <code class="varname">*VARNAME</code> is that the latter resolves
to <span class="emphasis"><em>unset</em></span> (this is very different from
the empty string that <code class="varname">*{:VARNAME}</code> would
resolve to).
</p>
<p>
If you do use the braces, make sure that the expansion value
doesn't contain quotes or whitespace.
(They would expand and then the expression would most likely
no longer be a valid expression as listed in the table below).
Quotes and whitespace are fine in <code class="varname">*VARNAME</code>
variables, but it is the entire value that will be used in
evaluations, regardless of whether quotes match up, etc.
I.e. quotes and whitespace are not <span class="emphasis"><em>special</em></span>
to the token evaluator.
Hence-- casual users should not use braces inside of
logical expressions.
</p>
<p>
Though tokens inside logical expressions are atomic, you
definitely can and should do tests on strings that contain
spaces.
You just have to use a variable for each such string value.
For example, if I want to see if the special variable
<code class="literal">?</code> is equal to
<code class="literal">one two three</code>, then you must do it like
this:</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="programlisting"> * cfString = one two three
* if (*cfString == ?)</pre>
</div>
<p>
As noted elsewhere in this guide, internal spaces are
preserved as given. For assignments, trailing spaces are
generally preserved.
Leading spaces are preserved only for the : assignment commands.
</p>
<div class="variablelist">
<p class="title">
<b>Logical Operators</b>
</p>
<table border="0" class="variablelist">
<colgroup>
<col valign="top" align="left">
<col>
</colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">TOKEN</span>
</p>
</td><td>
The token may be a literal, a <code class="literal">*{VARNAME}</code>
which is expanded early, or a <code class="varname">*VARNAME</code>
which is expanded late.
(You usually do not want to use
<code class="literal">*{VARNAME}</code> in logical expressions).
False if the token is not set, empty, or "0".
True otherwise.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">TOKEN1 == TOKEN2</span>
</p>
</td><td>
True if the two tokens are equivalent "strings".
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">TOKEN1 <> TOKEN2</span>
</p>
</td><td>
Ditto.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">TOKEN1 >< TOKEN2</span>
</p>
</td><td>
Ditto.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">TOKEN1 > TOKEN2</span>
</p>
</td><td>
True if the TOKEN1 string is longer than TOKEN2 or is
the same length but is greater according to a string sort.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">TOKEN1 < TOKEN2</span>
</p>
</td><td>
Similarly to <code class="literal">TOKEN1 > TOKEN2</code>.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">! LOGICAL_EXPRESSION</span>
</p>
</td><td>
Logical negation of any of the expressions listed above.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">TOKEN1 >= TOKEN2</span>
</p>
</td><td>
True if the TOKEN1 string is longer than TOKEN2 or is the
same length but is greater or equal value according to a
string sort.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">TOKEN1 => TOKEN2</span>
</p>
</td><td>
Ditto.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">TOKEN1 <= TOKEN2</span>
</p>
</td><td>
Similarly to <code class="literal">TOKEN1 >= TOKEN2</code>.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">TOKEN1 =< TOKEN2</span>
</p>
</td><td>
Ditto.
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p>
<code class="varname">*VARNAME</code>s in logical expressions, where the
VARNAME variable is not set, evaluate to an empty string.
Therefore <code class="literal">(*UNSETVAR = 0)</code> would be false,
even though <code class="literal">(*UNSETVAR)</code> by itself is false
and <code class="literal">(0)</code> by itself is false.
Another way of saying this is that <code class="varname">*VARNAME</code>
in a logical
expression is equivalent to *{:VARNAME} out of a logical
expression.
</p>
<p>
When developing scripts, you definitely should use SqlTool
interactively to verify that SqlTool evaluates logical
expressions as you expect.
Just run <code class="literal">* if</code> commands that print something
(i.e. \p) if the test expression is true.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="N11013"></a>Mathematical Assignments</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
Only integer math is supported, and only in mathematical
assignment commands.
Math assignment commands are of the format</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="programlisting"><ASSIGNEE> <ASSIGNMENT_OP> <INTEGER_EXPRESSION></pre>
</div>
<p>
For example, </p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="programlisting">SQUARE_FOOTAGE += (FOYER_FEET + 20) * 3 + 300 * BATHS</pre>
</div>
<p>
This works very close to Bash and Korn shell
<code class="literal">((...))</code> integer math.
The primary difference from those shells is that we prohibit
useless non-assignment commands.
Therefore, our math assignment commands always begin with the
assignee variable name and an assignment operator.
</p>
<p>
Those users unfamiliar with programs that do strictly integer
math should play around with it before using it for anything
important.
It may surprise you that real numbers like <code class="literal">2.9</code>
are not automatically converted to an integer, but are simply
prohibited;
and that results of expressions are truncated to an integer, not
rounded.
</p>
<p>
The list below is available from the program by running
<code class="literal">* ?</code> (they are listed after the words
"<code class="literal">Assignment OPs:</code>").
Note that though we support assignment operator
<code class="literal">++</code>, we do not support
<code class="literal">--</code> because that conflicts with our single-line
comment delimiter <code class="literal">--</code>.
The work-around is to use <code class="literal">-=1</code> instead.
</p>
<div class="itemizedlist">
<p class="title">
<b>Mathmatical Assignment Operators</b>
</p>
<ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; ">
<li class="listitem">
=
</li>
<li class="listitem">
++ (increment by 1, no expression allowed)
</li>
<li class="listitem">
-= (subtract value of the expression)
</li>
<li class="listitem">
+= (add to...)
</li>
<li class="listitem">
/= (divide by...)
</li>
<li class="listitem">
%= (divide by expression and return remainder)
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p>
To the right of the assignment operator is the integer math
expression consisting of raw variable names, integers, and
mathematical operators.
The variables referenced, if any, must all contain integer values.
In the expression only user PL variables may be used. Not Java
system properties nor SqlTool system PL variables.
</p>
<p>
The list below is available from the program by running
<code class="literal">* ?</code> (they are listed after the words
"<code class="literal">Internal ops:</code>").
</p>
<div class="itemizedlist">
<p class="title">
<b>Mathmatical Expression Operators</b>
</p>
<ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; ">
<li class="listitem">
INTEGER_USER_VARIABLE_NAME (resolve to its value)
</li>
<li class="listitem">
() (specify precedence)
</li>
<li class="listitem">
+
</li>
<li class="listitem">
-
</li>
<li class="listitem">
*
</li>
<li class="listitem">
/ (division)
</li>
<li class="listitem">
% (division remainder)
</li>
<li class="listitem">
^ (power)
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="N11076"></a>Flow Control</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
Flow control works by conditionally executing blocks of
Commands according to conditions specified by logical
expressions.
</p>
<div class="important" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Important">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Important]" src="../images/db/important.png"></td><th align="left">Important</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
Definitely run command <code class="literal">* ? control</code> to view
a list of the available flow control statements, and details
about how to use them.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>
The conditionally executed blocks are called
<span class="emphasis"><em>PL Blocks</em></span>.
These PL Blocks always occur between a PL flow control
statement (like <code class="literal">* foreach, *while, * if</code>)
and a corresponding <code class="literal">* end</code> PL Command
(like <code class="literal">* end foreach</code>).
</p>
<p>
Definitely read the section
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_logical-sect" title="Logical Expressions">Logical Expressions</a>.
</p>
<p>
The values of control variables for <code class="literal">* foreach</code>
and <code class="literal">* forrows</code> PL blocks will change as expected.
</p>
<p>
There are <code class="literal">* break</code> and
<code class="literal">* continue</code>, which work as any shell
scripter would expect them to.
The <code class="literal">* break</code> command can also be used to
quit the current SQL file without triggering any error
processing.
(I.e. processing will continue with the next line in the
<span class="emphasis"><em>including</em></span> SQL file or interactive
session, or with the next SQL file if you supplied multiple on
the command-line).
</p>
<p>
There is now also an inline <code class="literal">* if</code> command that
is very handy and concise.
Try these samples on.
</p>
<div class="example">
<a name="N110B0"></a>
<p class="title">
<b>Example 1.13. Inline If Statement</b>
</p>
<div class="example-contents">
<pre class="programlisting"> * if (*x == *NULL) \q Aborting program
....
* while...
* if (*exitCondition) * break
...
* if (*notableEvent) \l SEVERE Something bad happened</pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>
<br class="example-break">
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="N110B6"></a>PL Example</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
Below is the example SQL file
<code class="filename"><a class="filename" href="filelinks-app.html#pl.sql-link">sample/pl.sql</a></code>,
which shows how to use most of the basic PL
features <a href="sqltool-chapt.html#ftn.samplelocFn" class="footnoteref"><sup class="footnoteref">[1]</sup></a>.
If you have a question about how to use a particular
PL feature, check this file in your distribution before asking
for help...
and definitely read the in-program help for
<code class="literal">* ?</code> carefully!
Give it a run, like
</p>
<pre class="screen">java -jar $HSQLDB_HOME/lib/sqltool.jar mem $HSQLDB_HOME/pl.jar</pre>
<p>
It will suggest that you re-run it with another parameter.
Insert the new parameter before "<code class="literal">mem</code>".
</p>
<div class="example">
<a name="N110CB"></a>
<p class="title">
<b>Example 1.14. SQL File showing use of most PL features</b>
</p>
<div class="example-contents">
<pre class="programlisting">/*
$Id: pl.sql 4564 2011-10-19 04:27:37Z unsaved $
SQL File to illustrate the use of some basic SqlTool PL features.
Invoke like
java -jar .../sqltool.jar mem .../pl.sql
-- blaine
*/
* if (! *MYTABLE)
\p MYTABLE variable not set!
/* You could use \q to Quit SqlTool, but it's often better to just
break out of the current SQL file.
If people invoke your script from SqlTool interactively (with
\i yourscriptname.sql) any \q will kill their SqlTool session. */
\p Use argument "-pMYTABLE=mytablename" for SqlTool
* break
* end if
-- Turning on Continue-upon-errors so that we can check for errors ourselves.
\c true
\p
\p Loading up a table named '*{MYTABLE}'...
CREATE TABLE *{MYTABLE} (
i int,
s varchar(20)
);
-- PL variable ? is always set to status or fetched value of last SQL
-- statement. It will be null/unset if the last SQL statement failed.
\p CREATE status is *{?}
\p
/* Validate our return status.
In case of success of a CREATE TABLE, *? will be 0, and therefore a
'* if (*?)' would be false.
So we follow the general practice of testing *? for the error indicator
value of null, using the reserved SqlTool system variable *NULL.
*/
* if (*? == *NULL)
\p Our CREATE TABLE command failed.
* break
* end if
-- Default Continue-on-error behavior is what you usually want
\c false
\p
/* Insert data with a foreach loop.
These values could be from a read of another table or from variables
set on the command line like
*/
\p Inserting some data into our new table
* foreach VALUE (12 22 24 15)
* if (*VALUE > 23)
\p Skipping *{VALUE} because it is greater than 23
* continue
\p YOU WILL NEVER SEE THIS LINE, because we just 'continued'.
* end if
INSERT INTO *{MYTABLE} VALUES (*{VALUE}, 'String of *{VALUE}');
* end foreach
\p
/* This time instead of using the ? variable, we're assigning the SELECT value
to a User variable, 'themax'. */
* themax ~
/* Can put Special Commands and comments between "* VARNAME ~" and the target
SQL statement. */
\p We're saving the max value for later. You'll still see query output here:
SELECT MAX(i) FROM *{MYTABLE};
/* No need to test for failure status (either ? or themax being unset/null),
because we are in \c mode and would have aborted if the SELECT failed. */
* if (0 == *themax)
\p Got 0 as the max value.
* break
\p YOU WILL NEVER SEE THIS LINE, because we just 'broke'.
* end if
\p
\p ##############################################################
\p The results of our work:
SELECT * FROM *{MYTABLE};
\p MAX value is *{themax}
\p
\p Counting down to exit
* ((i = 3))
* while (*i > 0)
\p *{i}...
* ((i -= 1)) -- i++ is supported but i-- is not, because -- marks comments
* end while
\p
\p Everything worked. Signing off.
</pre>
</div>
</div>
<br class="example-break">
</div>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="sqltool_chunk-sect"></a>Chunking</h2>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
We hereby call the ability to transmit multiple SQL commands to
the database in one transmission <span class="emphasis"><em>chunking</em></span>.
Normally it's best to send SQL statements to the database
one-at-a-time.
That way, the database can give you or your program feedback about
each statement.
But there are situations where it is more important to transmit
multiple-statements-at-a-time than to get feedback for each
statement individually.
</p>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="N110DA"></a>Why?</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
The first general reason to chunk SQL commands is performance.
For standalone databases, the most common performance
bottleneck is network latency.
Chunking SQL commands can dramatically reduce network traffic.
</p>
<p>
The second reason is that there are a couple SQL commands which
require the terminating ";" to be sent to the database engine.
For simplicity and efficiency, it's usually better for general
JDBC clients like SqlTool to strip off the final delimiter.
Raw commands retains everything that the user types.
</p>
<p>
The third general reason to chunk SQL commands is if your
database requires you to send multiple commands in one
transmission.
This is usually the case with the following types of commands:
</p>
<div class="itemizedlist">
<ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; ">
<li class="listitem">
Nested SQL commands, like the nested CREATE SCHEMA
variant, and most stored procedure, function, and
trigger definitions.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
Commands containing non-quoted programming language to
be interpreted by the database engine.
Definitions of stored procedures, function, and triggers
often contain code like this.
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p>
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="N110EB"></a>How?</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
Use raw mode.
Go to the
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_raw-sect" title="Raw Mode">Raw Mode</a> section
to see how.
You can enter any text at all, exactly how you want it to
be sent to the database engine.
Therefore, in addition to chunking SQL commands, you can
give commands for non-SQL extensions to the database.
For example, you could enter JavaScript code to be used
in a stored procedure.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="sqltool_raw-sect"></a>Raw Mode</h2>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
You begin raw mode by issuing the Special Command "\.".
You can then enter as much text in any format you want.
When you are finished, enter a line consisting of only ".;"
to store the input to the edit buffer and send it to the
database server for execution.
</p>
<p>
You may end the raw input with a line consisting only of "."
(instead of ".;").
This will just save the input to the edit buffer so that you can do
things like edit it or create a macro/function/variable for it.
To execute a database command after editing, use the command ":;"
when you are satisfied (use ":b" to view buffer).
</p>
<p>
You may end the raw input with a line consisting only of "."
You'll notice that your prompt will be the "raw" prompt
between entering "\." and terminating the raw input with ".;"
or ".".
</p>
<p>
Just by running commands beginning with
<code class="literal">BEGIN</code>, <code class="literal">DECLARE</code>,
<code class="literal">CREATE function</code>,
or <code class="literal">CREATE procedure</code>, your SqlTool session will
automatically be changed to Raw mode, exactly as if you had entered
"\.".
That's because these commands are universally used to define
stored procedures or functions, and these commands require raw mode
(as explained in the previous section).
You can always switch to raw mode explicitly instead of depending on
the automatic switching.
Raw mode always requires you to indicate where the raw input ends,
regardless of raw mode was entered explicitly or automatically.
Trigger definition statements do not automatically switch to raw
mode, because there are many trigger definitions where raw mode is
not necessary--
therefore, you must explicitly use raw mode to define triggers
which contain semi-colons.
</p>
<p>
</p>
<div class="example">
<a name="N1110F"></a>
<p class="title">
<b>Example 1.15. Interactive Raw Mode example</b>
</p>
<div class="example-contents">
<pre class="programlisting"> sql> \.
Enter RAW text. No \, :, * commands.
End with a line containing only ".;" to send to database,
or only "." to store to edit buffer for editing or saving.
-----------------------------------------------------------
raw> line one;
raw> line two;
raw> line three;
raw> .
Raw chunk moved into buffer. Run ":;" to execute the chunk.
sql> :;
Executing command from buffer:
line one;
line two;
line three;
SQL Error at 'stdin' line 13:
"line one;
line two;
line three;"
Unexpected token: LINE
sql></pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>
<br class="example-break">
The error message "Unexpected token: LINE in statement [line]"
comes from the database engine, not SqlTool.
All three lines were transmitted to the database engine.
</p>
<p>
Edit Buffer Commands are not available when running SqlTool
non-interactively.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="sqltool_embedded-langs-sect"></a>SQL/PSM, SQL/JRT, and PL/SQL</h2>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
This section covers database-engine-embedded languages, which are
often used in the definition of stored procedures, stored functions,
and triggers.
<code class="literal">SQL/PSM</code>, <code class="literal">SQL/JRT</code>,
and <code class="literal">PL/SQ:</code> are well known examples.
We prefer <code class="literal">SQL/PSM</code> and <code class="literal">SQL/JRT</code>
because unlike the alternatives, they are based on open SQL
specifications.
</p>
<div class="note" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Note">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Note]" src="../images/db/note.png"></td><th align="left">Note</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
PL/SQL is <span class="bold"><strong>not</strong></span> the same as
PL. PL is the procedural language of SqlFile and is
independent of your back-end database.
PL commands always begin with *.
PL/SQL is an Oracle-specific extension processed on the server side.
You can not intermix PL and any server-embedded language
(except for setting a PL variable to the output of execution),
because when you enter server language to SqlTool, that input is
not processed by SqlFile.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>
Use <a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_raw-sect" title="Raw Mode">Raw Mode</a> to send
server-language code blocks to the database engine.
You do not need to enter the "\." command to enter raw mode.
Just begin a new SqlTool command line with "DECLARE",
"BEGIN", "CREATE FUNCTION", or "CREATE PROCEDURE",
and SqlTool will automatically put you into raw mode.
See the <a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_raw-sect" title="Raw Mode">Raw Mode</a>
section for details.
</p>
<p>
The following sample SQL file resides at
<code class="filename"><a class="filename" href="filelinks-app.html#plsql.sql-link">sample/plsql.sql</a></code>
in your HyperSQL distribution
<a href="sqltool-chapt.html#ftn.samplelocFn" class="footnoteref"><sup class="footnoteref">[1]</sup></a>.
This script will only work with Oracle, only if you have
permission to create the table
"T1" in the default schema, and if that object does not
already exist.
</p>
<div class="example">
<a name="N11146"></a>
<p class="title">
<b>Example 1.16. PL/SQL Example</b>
</p>
<div class="example-contents">
<pre class="programlisting">/*
* $Id: plsql.sql 826 2009-01-17 05:04:52Z unsaved $
*
* This example is copied from the "Simple Programs in PL/SQL"
* example by Yu-May Chang, Jeff Ullman, Prof. Jennifer Widom at
* the Standord University Database Group's page
* http://www-db.stanford.edu/~ullman/fcdb/oracle/or-plsql.html .
* I have only removed some blank lines (in case somebody wants to
* copy this code interactively-- because you can't use blank
* lines inside of SQL commands in non-raw mode SqlTool when running
* it interactively); and, at the bottom I have replaced the
* client-specific, non-standard command "run;" with SqlTool's
* corresponding command ".;" and added a plain SQL SELECT command
* to show whether the PL/SQL code worked. - Blaine
*/
CREATE TABLE T1(
e INTEGER,
f INTEGER
);
DELETE FROM T1;
INSERT INTO T1 VALUES(1, 3);
INSERT INTO T1 VALUES(2, 4);
/* Above is plain SQL; below is the PL/SQL program. */
DECLARE
a NUMBER;
b NUMBER;
BEGIN
SELECT e,f INTO a,b FROM T1 WHERE e>1;
INSERT INTO T1 VALUES(b,a);
END;
.;
/** The statement on the previous line, ".;" is SqlTool specific.
* This command says to save the input up to this point to the
* edit buffer and send it to the database server for execution.
* I added the SELECT statement below to give imm
*/
/* This should show 3 rows, one containing values 4 and 2 (in this order)...*/
SELECT * FROM t1;
</pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>
<br class="example-break">
Note that, inside of raw mode, you can use any kind of formatting
that your database engine needs or permits: Whatever you enter--
blank lines, comments,
everything-- will be transmitted to the database engine.
</p>
<p>
This file resides at
<code class="filename"><a class="filename" href="filelinks-app.html#sqljrt.sql-link">
testrun/sqltool/sqljrt.sql</a></code>
</p>
<div class="example">
<a name="N11152"></a>
<p class="title">
<b>Example 1.17. SQL/JRT Example</b>
</p>
<div class="example-contents">
<pre class="programlisting">/*
* $Id: sqljrt.sql 3353 2009-12-15 19:52:13Z unsaved $
*
* Tests SQL/JRT
*/
create function dehex(VARCHAR(80), INTEGER)
returns INTEGER
no sql
language java
external name 'CLASSPATH:java.lang.Integer.valueOf'
.;
CALL dehex('12', 16);
*if (*? != 18)
\q SQL/JRT function failed
*end if
</pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>
<br class="example-break">
This file resides at
<code class="filename"><a class="filename" href="filelinks-app.html#sqlpsm.sql-link">
testrun/sqltool/sqlpsm.sql</a></code>
</p>
<div class="example">
<a name="N1115C"></a>
<p class="title">
<b>Example 1.18. SQL/PSM Example</b>
</p>
<div class="example-contents">
<pre class="programlisting">/*
* $Id: sqlpsm.sql 826 2009-01-17 05:04:52Z unsaved $
*
* Tests SQL/JRT
*/
create table customers(
id INTEGER default 0, firstname VARCHAR(50), lastname VARCHAR(50),
entrytime TIMESTAMP);
create procedure new_customer(firstname varchar(50), lastname varchar(50))
modifies sql data
insert into customers values (
default, firstname, lastname, current_timestamp)
.;
SELECT count(*) FROM customers;
*if (*? != 0)
\q SQL/PSM preparation failed
*end if
CALL new_customer('blaine', 'simpson');
SELECT count(*) FROM customers;
*if (*? != 1)
\q SQL/PSM procedure failed
*end if
</pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>
<br class="example-break">
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="sqltool_dsv-sect"></a>
Delimiter-Separated-Value Imports and Exports</h2>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
SqlTool's DSV functionality encompasses what many users will
recognize as CSV export, as well as portable backup or transfer of
data.
Those familiar with Oracle's SQL*Loader will recognize the extreme
usefulness of the feature set.
Besides database- and platform-independent data backups, exports can
be used to deploy data sets with applications, to transfer data
among multiple database instances (even drastically different
database instances such as SQL Server and HyperSQL), and to properly
change control data sets with a content management system such as a
collaboration server or Subversion.
To jump way ahead for a moment to whet your appetite, here is a
sample <span class="emphasis"><em>import reject report</em></span> which will can be
generated automatically for you upon import just by setting the PL
variable <code class="varname">*DSV_REJECT_REPORT</code> (to the desired
destination HTML file name).
</p>
<div class="mediaobject" align="center">
<img src="rejreport-sample.png" align="middle"><div class="caption">
<p>A DSV Import reject report</p>
</div>
</div>
<p>
If you wish to, you can review the reject report before deciding
whether to commit or roll back the inserts.
</p>
<div class="note" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Note">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Note]" src="../images/db/note.png"></td><th align="left">Note</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
This feature is independent of HyperSQL Text Tables.
(See the Text Tables chapter of the
<a class="link" href="http://hsqldb.org/doc/2.0/guide/index.html" target="_top">
HyperSQL User Guide</a> for details about them).
a server-side feature of HyperSQL.
It makes no difference to SqlTool whether the source or target
table of your export/import is a memory, cache, or text table.
Indeed, like all features of SqlTool, it works fine with other
JDBC databases.
It works great, for example to migrate data from a table
of one type to a table of another type, or to another schema,
or to another database instance, or to another database system.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>
Most business type people would call this feature "CSV", but there
is an important difference.
Though "CSV" stands for <span class="emphasis"><em>Comma-Separated Values</em></span>,
the only thing actually distinctive about CSV is not the comma but
the way that double-quotes are used for escaping purposes.
As discussed in this section, with Delimiter-Separated-Value
files, we purposefully
choose an effective delimiter instead of the CSV method of
using a delimiter which works in some cases and then use
double-quoting to escape occurrence of the column-delimiter
and of double-quote itself in the actual data.
Just by choosing a delimiter which never needs escaping, we
eliminate the whole double-quoting complication, and the data in our
files always look just like the corresponding data in the database.
To make this CSV / Delimiter-separated-value distinction clear,
I use the suffix ".dsv" for my data files.
This leads me to stipulate the abbreviation DSV for the
<span class="emphasis"><em>Delimiter Separated Value</em></span> feature of HyperSQL.
</p>
<p>
Use the <code class="literal">\x</code> command to eXport a table to a
DSV file, and the <code class="literal">\m</code> command to iMport a
DSV file into a pre-existing table.
<span class="bold"><strong>
Use command <code class="literal">\x?</code> or <code class="literal">\m?</code> for
a listing of all related commands and options.
</strong></span>
</p>
<p>
The row and column delimiters may be any String (or even a
regular expression for import), not just a single character.
The export function is more general than just a table data exporter.
Besides the trivial generalization that you may specify a
view or other virtual table name in place of a table name,
you can alternatively export the output of any query which
produces normal text output.
(This could actually even be multiple multiple-line SQL statements,
as long as the last one outputs the needed data cells).
A benefit to specifying even a simple query is that it allows you
to export only
some columns of a table, and to specify a WHERE clause to narrow
down the rows to be exported (or perform any other SQL
transformation, mapping, join, etc.).
A specific use for this would be to exclude columns of
binary data (which can be exported by other means, such as
a PL loop to store binary values to files with the \bd command),
or pseudo-or derived columns.
</p>
<p>
Note that the import command will not create a new table.
This is because of the impossibility of guessing appropriate
types and constraints based only on column names and a data
sampling (which is all that a DSV-importer has access to).
Therefore, if you wish to populate a new table, create the
table before running the import.
The import file does not need to have data for all columns of a
table.
The only required columns are those required by database
constraints (non-null, indexes, keys, etc.)
One specific reason to omit columns is if you want values of
some columns to be created automatically by column DEFAULT
settings, triggers, HyperSQL identity sequences, etc.
Another reason would be to skip binary columns.
</p>
<p>
Due to wildly varying support and behavior of data and time types in
SQL databases, SqlTool always converts date-type and time-type values
being imported from DSV files using
<a class="link" href="http://download.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/sql/Timestamp.html" target="_top">java.sql.Timestamp</a>s.
This usually provides more resolution than is needed, but is required
for portability.
Therefore, questions about acceptable date/time formats are ultimately
decided by the Java's
<a class="link" href="http://download.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/sql/Timestamp.html" target="_top">java.sql.Timestamp class</a>.
</p>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="N111A9"></a>Simple DSV exports and imports using default settings</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
Even if you need to change delimiters, table names, or file
names from the defaults, I suggest that you run one export
and import with default settings as a practice run.
A memory-only HyperSQL instance is ideal for test runs like this.
</p>
<p>
This command exports the table <code class="literal">icf.projects</code>
to the file <code class="filename">projects.dsv</code> in the current
directory (where you invoked SqlTool from).
By default, the output file name will be the specified source
table name plus the extension <code class="literal">.dsv</code>.
</p>
<div class="example">
<a name="N111B9"></a>
<p class="title">
<b>Example 1.19. DSV Export Example</b>
</p>
<div class="example-contents">
<pre class="programlisting"> SET SCHEMA icf;
\x projects</pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>
<br class="example-break">
We could also have run <code class="literal">\x icf.projects</code>
(which would have created a file named
<code class="filename">icf.projects.dsv</code>)
instead of changing the session schema.
In this example we have chosen to make the export file name
independent of the schema to facilitate importing it into
a different schema.
</p>
<p>
Take a look at the output file.
Notice that the first line consists of column names, not
data.
This line is present because it will be needed if the file is
to used for a DSV import.
Notice the following characteristics about the export data.
The column delimiter is the pipe character "|".
The record delimiter is the default line delimiter character(s)
for your operating system.
The string used to represent database <code class="literal">NULL</code>s
is <code class="literal">[null]</code>.
See the next section for how to change these from their default
values.
</p>
<div class="warning" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Warning">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Warning]" src="../images/db/warning.png"></td><th align="left">Warning</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
You can not DSV import Array values where any Array elements
contain commas, for example an Array of VARCHARs which contain
one or more commas.
There is no such limitation on DSV exports, which you can use
for purposes other than SqlTool importing, or you could use
a script to change the commas to some other character.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>
This command imports the data from the file
<code class="filename">projects.dsv</code> in the current
directory (where you invoked SqlTool from) into the table
<code class="literal">newschema.projects</code>.
By default, the output table name will be the input filename
after removing optional leading directory and trailing final
extension.
</p>
<div class="example">
<a name="N111D8"></a>
<p class="title">
<b>Example 1.20. DSV Import Example</b>
</p>
<div class="example-contents">
<pre class="programlisting"> SET SCHEMA newschema;
\m projects.dsv</pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>
<br class="example-break">
If the DSV file was named with the target schema, you would
have skipped the <code class="literal">SET SCHEMA</code> command, like
<code class="literal">\m newschema.projects.dsv</code>.
In order to allow for more flexibility, the default input
input delimiters are not exactly the same as the output
delimiters.
The input delimiters are regular expressions.
The input column delimiter happens to be the regular expression
corresponding exactly to "|"; but the input record delimiter
matches UNIX, Windows, Mac, and HTTP line breaks.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title">
<a name="N111E4"></a>Specifying queries and options</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
For a hands on example of a DSM import which generates
an import report and uses some other options, change to
directory <code class="filename">HSQLDB/sample</code> and play
with the working script
<code class="filename"><a class="filename" href="filelinks-app.html#dsv-sample.sql-link">
dsv-sample.sql</a></code>
<a href="sqltool-chapt.html#ftn.samplelocFn" class="footnoteref"><sup class="footnoteref">[1]</sup></a>.
You can execute it like
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="screen"> java -jar ../lib/sqltool.jar mem dsv-sample.sql</pre>
</div>
<p>
(assuming that you are using the supplied
<code class="filename">sqltool.rc</code> file or have have urlid
<code class="literal">mem</code> set up).
</p>
<p>
The header line in the DSV file is required at this time.
(If there is user demand, it can be made optional for
exporting, but it will remain required for importing).
</p>
<p>
Your export will fail if the output column or record delimiter,
or the null representation value occurs in the data being
exported.
You change these values by setting the PL variables
<code class="varname">*DSV_COL_DELIM</code>,
<code class="varname">*DSV_ROW_DELIM</code>,
<code class="varname">*DSV_NULL_REP</code>.
Notice that the asterisk is part of the variable names, to
indicate that these variables are used by SqlTool internally.
Regular expressions have their own mechanism for including
special characters.
<code class="varname">*DSV_NULL_REP</code> effects normal displaying of
VARCHAR output to screen or stdout, not just importing and
exporting-- so you should reset the value if you want to
revert to normal display behavior.
When specifying output delimiters, you can use the escape
sequences \n, \r, \f, \t, \\, and decimal, octal or hex
specifications like \20, \020, \0x20.
For example, to change the column delimiter to the tab character,
you would give the command
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="programlisting"> * *DSV_COL_DELIM = \t</pre>
</div>
<p>
</p>
<p>
The input (\m) delimiter values,
<code class="varname">*DSV_COL_SPLITTER</code> and
<code class="varname">*DSV_ROW_SPLITTER</code>, are set using normal
Perl/Java regexp syntax.
There are escapes for specifying special characters, and
anything else you would need.
Input vs. output row and column delimiters are easily
distinguished by containing "SPLITTER" for splitting input
(\m) files; or "DELIM" for the delimiters that we will write
(\x) among the data.
</p>
<div class="tip" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Tip:
*DSV...DELIM vs *DSV...SPLITTER settings
">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Tip]" src="../images/db/tip.png"></td><th align="left">
*DSV...DELIM vs *DSV...SPLITTER settings
</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
Both the ...DELIM and the ...SPLITTER settings are for
delimiting cells of data,
but whereas our DELIM values are literal things that
SqlTool will write right into a DSV file, SPLITTER values are
patterns for detecting the literal delimiters in existing DSV
files.
</p>
<p>
The settings named like <code class="varname">*DSV...SPLITTER</code> are
input delimiters specified as regular expressions following
the rules in the
<a class="link" href="http://download.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/regex/Pattern.html" target="_top">API spec for java.util.regex.Pattern</a>.
The settings named like <code class="varname">*DSV...SPLITTER</code> are
output delimiters specified as constant strings which can contain
escape sequences to represent special characters (as documented
in this section).
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>
For imports, you must always specify the source DSV file path.
If you want to <span class="emphasis"><em>export</em></span> to a different file
than one in the current directory named according to the source
table, set the PL variable <code class="varname">*DSV_TARGET_FILE</code>,
like
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<pre class="programlisting"> * *DSV_TARGET_FILE = /tmp/dtbl.dsv</pre>
</div>
<p>
</p>
<p>
For exports, you must always specify the source table name
or query.
If you want to <span class="emphasis"><em>import</em></span> to a table other
than that derived from
the input DSV file name, set the PL variable
<code class="varname">*DSV_TARGET_TABLE</code>.
The table name may contain a schema name prefix.
</p>
<p>
You don't need to import all of the columns in a data file.
To designate the fields to be skipped, iether set the PL
PL variable <code class="varname">*DSV_SKIP_COLUMNS</code>, or replace
the column names in the header line to "-" (hyphen).
The value of <code class="varname">*DSV_SKIP_COLUMNS</code> is
case-insensitive, and multiple column names are separated with
white space and/or commas.
</p>
<p>
You can specify a query instead of a tablename with the
\x command in order to filter or transform data from a table
or view, or to export the output of a join, etc.
You must set the PL variable <code class="varname">*DSV_TARGET_FILE</code>,
as explained above (since there is no table name from which to
automatically map a file name).
</p>
<div class="example">
<a name="N1124B"></a>
<p class="title">
<b>Example 1.21. DSV Export of an Arbitrary Query</b>
</p>
<div class="example-contents">
<pre class="programlisting"> * *DSV_TARGET_FILE = outfile.txt
\x SELECT entrydate, 2 * aval "Double aval", modtime FROM bs.dtbl</pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>
<br class="example-break">
Note that I specified the column label alias "Double aval"
so that the label for that column in the DSV file header will
not be blank.
You can type a query line as long long as you want to, but if
you want to use a specified query that spans multiple lines,
then you must use the command variant <code class="literal">\x :</code>
to use the query in the previous edit buffer.
(To populate the edit buffer with your multi-line SQL query,
you must execute the command before... usually undesirable, or
end the SQL with a blank line instead of a
<code class="literal">;</code>... only works interactively, or use
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_raw-sect" title="Raw Mode">Raw Mode</a>).
</p>
<p>
By default, imports will abort as soon as a error is
encountered during parsing the file or inserting data.
If you invoke SqlTool with a SQL script on the command line,
the failure will cause SqlTool to roll back and exit.
If run interactively, you can decide whether to commit or
roll back the rows that inserted before the failure.
You can modify this behavior with the \a and \c settings.
</p>
<p>
If you set either a reject dsv file or a reject report file,
then failures during imports will be reported but will not
cause the import to abort.
When run in this way, SqlTool will give you a report at
the end about how many records were skipped, rejected, and
successfully inserted.
The reject dsv file is just a dsv file with exact copies of
the dsv records that failed to insert.
The reject report file is a HTML report which lists, for
every rejected record, why that record was rejected.
<code class="literal">\m?</code> will show you that the required PL
variables for this functionality are
<code class="varname">*DSV_REJECT_FILE</code>
and <code class="varname">*DSV_REJECT_REPORT</code>.
In both cases, you set the variable value to the path of the
file which SqlTool will create.
</p>
<p>
Reject reports use the same templating system as SqlTool
HTML reports.
Therefore you can set SqlTool system PL variables
<code class="varname">*TOP_HTMLFRAG_FILE</code> or
<code class="varname">*BOTTOM_HTMLFRAG_FILE</code> to use your own
opening and closing HTML and to completely replace the
styling.
If you use the default templates you can set user PL variable
<code class="varname">REPORT_TITLE</code> for the obvious reason, and
you can place a file named <code class="filename">overrides.css</code>
into the same directory as your generated report, for the
obvious purpose.
You can use PL variable references in your own fragment files
(remember to use the <code class="literal">${:VARNAME}</code> construct
to prevent errors for variables that are not set).
You can also use automatically set variables like
<code class="varname">*TIMESTAMP</code> and <code class="varname">*REVISION</code>
</p>
<p>
To allow for user-friendly entry of headers, we require
that tables for DSV import/exports use standard column names.
I.e., no column names that would require quoting in interactive
SQL statements.
The DSV import and export parsers are very smart and
user-friendly.
The data types of columns are checked so that the parser can
make safe assumptions about white space and blank entries in
the data.
If a column is a JDBC Boolean type, for example, then we
know that a field value of " True " obviously means "True",
and that a field value of "" obviously means null.
Since we require vanilla style column names, we allow
white space anywhere in the header column.
We allow blank lines anywhere (where "lines" are delimited
by <code class="varname">*DSV_ROW_DELIM)</code>.
By default, commented lines are ignored, but this can be
disabled (by setting <code class="literal">DSV_SKIP_PREFIX</code> to the
empty string) or you can change the delimiter character from
# to whatever you want (by setting
<code class="literal">DSV_SKIP_PREFIX</code> to that value).
</p>
<div class="important" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Important: Use In-Program Help for Importing and Exporting">
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="center" rowspan="2" width="25"><img alt="[Important]" src="../images/db/important.png"></td><th align="left">Use In-Program Help for Importing and Exporting</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left">
<p>
Run the command "\x?" or "\m?" to see the several system PL
variables which you can set to adjust reject file behavior,
commenting behavior, and other DSV features.
The in-program help is the definitive reference for available
options, not this manual.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>
You can also define some settings right in the DSV file,
and you can even specify multiple header lines in a single
DSV file.
I use this last feature to import data from one data set
into multiple tables that are joined.
Since I don't have any more time to dedicate to explaining
all of these features, I'll give you some examples from
working DSV files and let you take it from there.
</p>
<div class="example">
<a name="N11291"></a>
<p class="title">
<b>Example 1.22. Sample DSV headerswitch settings</b>
</p>
<div class="example-contents">
<pre class="programlisting"> # RCS keyword was here.
headerswitch{
itemdef:name|-|-|hardness|breakdc|-
simpleitemdef:itemdef_name|maxvalue|weight|-|-|maxhp
}</pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>
<br class="example-break">
I'll just note that the prefixes for the header rows must be of
format target-table-name + :.
You can use * for target-table-name here, for the obvious purpose.
</p>
<div class="example">
<a name="N11297"></a>
<p class="title">
<b>Example 1.23. DSV targettable setting</b>
</p>
<div class="example-contents">
<pre class="programlisting"> targettable=t</pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>
<br class="example-break">
This last example is from the SqlTool unit test file
<code class="filename">dsv-trimming.dsv</code>.
These special commands must be at the top of the file
(before any normal data or header lines).
</p>
<p>
There is also the <code class="varname">*DSV_CONST_COLS</code> setting,
which you can use to automatically write static, constant
values to the specified columns of all inserted rows.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="sqltool_csv-sect"></a>CSV Imports and Exports</h2>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
The only difference between CSV and DSV is that CSVs allow presence
of the column delimiter in the CSV file, and require the use of
double-quotes to escape occurrences of both that column delimiter and
of double-quotes in the real data cells.
To enable this double-quote escaping, just use commands
<code class="literal">\xq</code> and <code class="literal">\mq</code> instead of
<code class="literal">\x</code> and <code class="literal">\m</code>.
Since CSV <span class="emphasis"><em>is</em></span> this double-quote escaping,
SqlTool's <code class="literal">\xq</code> and <code class="literal">\mq</code> commands
initiate CSV exports and imports.
Conflicting with the name, CSV files do not need to use comma as the
column delimiter, and the tab character is a common alternative.
Since CSV importing and exporting is implemented as a sub-case of DSV
import and exporting, everything in the
<a class="link" href="sqltool-chapt.html#sqltool_dsv-sect" title="Delimiter-Separated-Value Imports and Exports">
Delimiter-Separated-Value Imports and Exports</a>
section applies, and CSV users should definitely read that section.
</p>
<p>
I should also mention the trivial difference between
<code class="literal">\xq</code> and <code class="literal">\x</code> that if you do not
specify <code class="varname">*DSV_TARGET_FILE</code>, the default filename
suffix will be "<code class="literal">.csv</code>" instead of
"<code class="literal">.dsv</code>".
</p>
<p>
Always use command \mq? or \xq? to list all available import and
export options.
</p>
<div class="variablelist">
<p class="title">
<b>Settings Often of Interest to CSV User</b>
</p>
<table border="0" class="variablelist">
<colgroup>
<col valign="top" align="left">
<col>
</colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">*DSV_COL_DELIM</span>
</p>
</td><td>
Set to what column delimiter to write to the CSV file.
Values of "<code class="literal">,</code>" and
"<code class="literal">\t</code>" (without the quotes) are most common with
CSVs.
This is what SqlTool will use to <span class="emphasis"><em>separate</em></span>
the values in a single output CSV file line.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">*DSV_COL_SPLITTER</span>
</p>
</td><td>
Set to the column-delimiter character in the CSV file to be read.
This is what SqlTool will use to <span class="emphasis"><em>split</em></span>
each line into multiple cell values.
Values of "<code class="literal">,</code>" and
"<code class="literal">\t</code>" (without the quotes) are most common with
CSVs.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">*NULL_REP_TOKEN</span>
</p>
</td><td>
This effects only data coming from or destined to columns with
a string data type, because nulls can easily be distinguished
from non-nulls for other data types.
By default, SqlTool will distinguish between nulls and empty
strings for string columns.
Many CSV-support applications can't handle importing or exporting
nulls.
In you are interfacing to such an app,
set Java system property
'<code class="varname">sqltool.REMOVE_EMPTY_VARS</code>' to
<code class="literal">false</code>
and set <code class="varname">*NULL_REP_TOKEN</code> to the
empty string like "<code class="literal">* *NULL_RP_TOKEN =</code>".
This will cause both nulls and empty strings to write empty
strings to the export CSV file; and will cause empty strings in
the import CSV file to create nulls.
(The Java system property setting will become unnecessary
with the next minor relase of SqlTool because that is going to
be SqlTool's default behavior).
<code class="varname">*NULL_REP_TOKEN</code> also effects how nulls in
VARCHAR columns are
represented in regular query output (non-exports), so after your
exporting/importing you will often want to reset it with
"<code class="literal">* - *NULL_REP_TOKEN</code>" unless you will be
exiting SqlTool immediately.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">*ALL_QUOTED</span>
</p>
</td><td>
Every cell value will be quoted upon \xq, instead of just those
values containing a column delimiter character or double-quote
that needs escaping.
<code class="varname">*ALL_QUOTED</code> does not effect the
<code class="varname">*NULL_REP_TOKEN</code>.
If you want the null-rep token to be double-quoted took, then
you must set the <code class="varname">*NULL_REP_TOKEN</code> value itself
to be double-quoted.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
<span class="term">*DSV_REJECT_REPORT</span>
</p>
</td><td>
Set this to the path of a HTML file that will be generated if
any bad input records are encountered upon \mq.
Instead of aborting, SqlTool will continue and import every
record that it is able to.
You can view the summary counts (always displayed) and/or the
reject report before deciding whether to commit or rollback the
new database records.
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p>
</p>
<p>
This sample shows everything you need to know to get going with CSV.
<code class="filename"><a class="filename" href="filelinks-app.html#csv-sample.sql-link">
csv-sample.sql</a></code>
<a href="sqltool-chapt.html#ftn.samplelocFn" class="footnoteref"><sup class="footnoteref">[1]</sup></a>.
</p>
<div class="example">
<a name="N1132F"></a>
<p class="title">
<b>Example 1.24. Sample CSV export + import script</b>
</p>
<div class="example-contents">
<pre class="programlisting">/*
* $Id: csv-sample.sql 4812 2011-11-20 21:31:49Z unsaved $
*
* Create a table, CVSV-export the data, import it back.
*/
* *DSV_COL_DELIM = ,
* *DSV_COL_SPLITTER = ,
-- Following causes a reject report to be written if there are any bad records
-- during the import. To test it, enable the "FORCE AN ERROR" block below.
* *DSV_REJECT_REPORT = import.html
-- 1. SETTINGS
-- For applications like MS Excel, which can't import or export nulls, we have
-- to dummy down our database empty strings to export and import as if they
-- were nulls.
* *NULL_REP_TOKEN =
-- Enable following line to quote every cell value
-- * *ALL_QUOTED = true
-- 2. SET UP TEST DATA
CREATE TABLE t (i INT, v VARCHAR(25), d DATE);
INSERT INTO t(i, v, d) VALUES (1, 'one two three', null);
INSERT INTO t(i, v, d) VALUES (2, null, '2007-06-24');
INSERT INTO t(i, v, d) VALUES (3, 'one,two,,three', '2007-06-24');
INSERT INTO t(i, v, d) VALUES (4, '"one"two""three', '2007-06-24');
INSERT INTO t(i, v, d) VALUES (5, '"one,two"three,', '2007-06-24');
INSERT INTO t(i, v, d) VALUES (6, '', '2007-06-24');
commit;
-- 3. CSV EXPORT
/* Export */
\xq t
/* FORCE AN ERROR. Enable the following 3 lines to force a bad CSV record.
\o t.csv
\p barf
\o
*/
-- 4. BACK UP AND ZERO SOURCE TABLE
CREATE TABLE orig AS (SELECT * FROM t) WITH DATA;
DELETE FROM t;
commit;
-- 5. CSV IMPORT
\mq t.csv
commit;
-- 6. MANUALLY EXAMINE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SOURCE AND IMPORTED DATA.
-- See <HSQLDB_ROOT>/testrun/sqltool/csv-roundtrip.sql to see a way to make
-- this same comparison programmatically.
* - *NULL_REP_TOKEN
\p
\p ORIGINAL:
SELECT * FROM orig;
\p
\p IMPORTED:
SELECT * FROM t;
\p
\p The empty string in the source table will have been translated to null in
\p the imported data.
\p You can see that the generated CSV file represents both nulls and
\p empty strings as nothing, hence the convergence.
</pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>
<br class="example-break">
</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="sqltool_unittest-sect"></a>Unit Testing SqlTool</h2>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
The SqlTool unit tests reside at <code class="filename">testrun/sqltool</code>
in your HyperSQL distribution or source code repository.
Just run <code class="filename">runtests</code> in that directory to
execute all of the tests (except for non-Windows, non-UNIX, non-MacOS
users, who must invoke
<code class="literal">../../build/gradlew</code> directly).
Read the file <code class="filename">README.txt</code> to find out all
about file naming conventions so that you can write your own
SQL test script files.
</p>
<p>
The system requirements to run the tests is now just a Java 6 JRE.
The real test runner is implemented in the Groovy script
<code class="filename">runtests.groovy</code>.
By just typing <code class="literal">runtests</code>, Windows and Linux
(incl. MacOS) users will invoke their OS-specific scripts.
All users can invoke Gradle manually instead if they wish to, using
either <code class="filename">../../build/gradlew</code> or a local
Gradle installation.
If you have Groovy installed, you can cut out all of the wrappers and
invoke the Groovy script directly, like
<code class="literal">groovy runtests.groovy</code>
(or change the interpreter line within the script file to point to
your own <code class="filename">groovy</code> path).
</p>
</div>
<div class="footnotes">
<br>
<hr style="width:100; align:left;">
<div id="ftn.samplelocFn" class="footnote">
<p>
<a href="#samplelocFn" class="simpara"><sup class="simpara">[1] </sup></a>
To reduce the time I will need to spend maintaining this document,
in this chapter I am giving the path to the
<code class="filename">sample</code> directory as it is in HyperSQL 2.0.x
distributions, namely, <code class="filename">HSQLDB_HOME/sample</code>.
Users of HSQLDB before 2.0.x should translate these sample
directory paths
to use <code class="filename">HSQLDB_HOME/src/org/hsqldb/sample/...</code>.
</p>
</div>
</div>
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