HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: shamel@mais.hydro.qc.ca (Stephane Hamel)
Newsgroups: comp.databases.oracle
Subject: Problem with date fields
Date: 29 Sep 92 13:48:52 GMT
Organization: Hydro-Quebec (DSB)


According to the Oracle documentation, you can use quoted dates to qualify
records in a WHERE clause where the column data type is DATE. We have found
that this behavior is not always correct, so we changed our programs
to use TO_CHAR(field,'DD-MON-YY'), which make no use of the index (of course
assuming the index contain the date field).

Our Oracle versions are:
	SQL*Plus: Version 3.0.9.1.2
	ORACLE RDBMS V6.0.33.1.1
	PL/SQL V1.0.32.3.1

Can somebody explain why DATE fields have such a behavior:

1) Table description:

	SQL> desc sample_table;
 	Name                            Null?    Type
 	------------------------------- -------- ----
 	CODE_OUVRAGE                    NOT NULL CHAR(10)
 	DATE_MESURE                     NOT NULL DATE
 	TYPE_LECTURE                             CHAR(1)
 	INSPECTEUR                               CHAR(9)

2) Sample query #1:

	SQL> r
  	1  SELECT code_ouvrage, date_mesure
  	2  FROM   sample_table
  	3  WHERE  code_ouvrage = 'CD-00'
  	4* AND    date_mesure = '22-SEP-92'   /* Should work, according to doc.

	no rows selected

3) Sample query #2:

	SQL> r
  	1  SELECT code_ouvrage, date_mesure
  	2  FROM   sample_table
  	3  WHERE  code_ouvrage = 'CD-00'
  	4  AND    date_mesure =               /* Should work, but useless
        5*        TO_DATE('22-SEP-92','DD-MON-YY')
	
	no rows selected

4) Sample query #3:

	SQL> r
  	1  SELECT code_ouvrage, date_mesure
  	2  FROM   sample_table
  	3  WHERE  code_ouvrage = 'CD-00'
  	4* AND    TO_CHAR(date_mesure,'DD-MON-YY') = '22-SEP-92'
                  /* Work, but make no use of the index and make an unnecessary
                  /* data type conversion
	
	CODE_OUVRA DATE_MESU
	---------- ---------
	CD-00      22-SEP-92
	CD-00      22-SEP-92
	CD-00      22-SEP-92
--
 Stephane Hamel (SHamel@Mais.Hydro.Qc.Ca) | AutoControl Inc.
 Senior Programmer-Analyst                | Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Newsgroups: comp.databases
From: map@sequent.com (Michael Perry)
Subject: Re: Flat file database for Unix?
Organization: Sequent Computer Systems Inc.
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 92 13:40:07 GMT

In article <90968@netnews.upenn.edu> arzt@enexte.dccs.upenn.edu (Noam H. Arzt) writes:
>Believe it or not, I am looking for a SIMPLE flat file database for Unix.  
>By simple, I mean it does not need to be relational, nor GUI. I mean a  
>product like Filemaker on the Mac or any number of products on PC's  
>(everything from PFS: File to Alpha Four). It occurred to me that given  
>all the solutions available for all kinds of things, I could not think of  
>a good way to deliver database application to terminal-based Unix users.
>

Call up your Informix rep and ask them about their C-ISAM product.
Or possibly the Btrieve product from Novell.

Mike
From: t_abraham@uimrl7.mrl.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Wither my query?
Date: 7 Oct 92 02:22:22 GMT
Reply-To: t_abraham@ta1.cs.uiuc.edu
Organization: Materials Research Lab


I am currently working on a paper concerning the process of handling SQL
queries.
I am seeking suggestions for sources for the paper. 

I would like to trace the query from the time it is entered by the user
until the result
is returned.  It would be good for purposes of uniformity to use the
same dialect, platform,
etc. for the whole procedure, but not entirely necessary. Information on
query parsing,
analysis, optimization, as well as interaction with the OS and other
concerns would be
the type of stuff I could use. 

I know this information is available in excruciating detail from 3 inch
thick textbooks and the
like, but this is only a 15-20 page paper, not a PhD thesis.  

Do any software developers make any of this kind of information
available - ie. not the
source code, just an idea of what is going on.

Any help on this 'self-inflicted' effort  is sincerly appreciated!

Regards,

Thomas W. Abraham

tabraham@ta1.cs.uiuc.edu
From: nanda@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Dbse Guru's help!!
Date: 6 Oct 92 15:04:13 CDT
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services

To Database gurus,
	I am looking for a product that will do Data dict., decision tables,
entity relationship diagram and so on. I am embarking on a large database
project and would like to start off on the right foot.  Are there such
products availabe in the market?  Do some of them generate code too.? if yes, 
I am using foxpro, will it create fox code?

Thanks in Advance

Please reply directly to

praba@research.rgsps.ukans.edu

Organization: Junior, Social & Decision Sciences, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Date: Tue,  6 Oct 1992 14:28:22 -0400 
From: "Matthew E. Kowalczyk" <mk46+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: FoxPro vs. FoxBASE+

I am currently pondering the question of whether or not I should
transport all of my current FoxBASE+/Mac programs to FoxPro v2.0 for the
IBM. Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

I need to know how well the compatibility is between FoxPro for IBM and
FoxBase+ for the mac?

Are programs, databases, screens, easily portable from FoxBASE to FoxPro?

How much would I have to change, and what would I have to change in
order to convert from FoxBASE+ to FoxPro?

Thanks in advance,
     Matthew Kowalczyk     Carnegie Mellon University   mk46+@andrew.cmu.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"...In a good way. 10 songs. Spontaneous. Creation. Emotion. Very
pleasing. Real Music. No analyzing. No pressure. No hype. Just music to
make music. Friends and a reason. Chemistry. Beauty. Life Rules!" -Jeff
Ament (Temple of the Dog)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.databases
From: pky@meadow.uucp (Peter Yeung)
Subject: Re: Data Base design pet peeve
Reply-To: pky@meadow.UUCP (Peter Yeung)
Organization: Amdahl Canada Ltd., Software Development Center
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 92 15:00:21 GMT

In article <66577@cup.portal.com> DonD@cup.portal.com (Don Robert DeCosta) writes:
>This is one of my Data Base design pet peeves and it just came up again
>during an "Introduction to SQL" seminar, I wanted to bounce it off you
>folks to see if I'm wrong (NEVER!).
>
>The presenter was discussing your average order entry data base application,
>The CUSTOMERS table had an arbitrary 2 digit key and the presenter wanted
>to explain SCHEMA concepts by asking the audience what would be needed to
>describe this data item, the audience offered, "it's numeric," "it's an
>integer," "it's a positive integer between 0 and 99," the presenter then
>decides the item is a 2 character string limited to numerals, he says
>you make this decision because this data item will never be manipulated
>as numeric, you don't SUM customer_id, you don't AVG customer_id, etc.
>
>I say, "Hey, if I only have 100 customers I'm going out of business!"
>Let's say we have 30000 customers, I say make it a 2 byte integer!  Why
>would I want to use 5 bytes to store "30000" when I could use 2 bytes
>to store it as 30000? And why do I want to force my CPU to do a string
>compare loop when looking for a key item when it could be doing a simple
>single instruction integer compare? And, Hey! This is SQL, it's relational,
>so my customer_id is gonna show up in every ORDERS record wasting another
>3 bytes and again in that foreign index wasting another 3 bytes.
>
>Like I said this has come up before, this simple, "If you don't perform
>math on it, make it alpha" logic... I think it's totally wrong!
>
>Comments?

The problem is that your typical DBMS does not have the concept of "semantics"
as in (surprise, surprise) our product. In our product, you can specify
a field as numeric and has semantic which disallows it to be used for 
calculations.

>
>Don DeCosta           |The nice thing about sanity is|  VM/Nomad2
>DonD@cup.portal.com   |you can lose it more than once|  Amiga/Imagine
>
>(p.s. my grammar checker just told me to use "you people" rather than 
>"you folks."  Do you think Ross Perot uses my grammar checker?)


-- 
Peter Yeung     Amdahl Canada Ltd., Software Development Center
                2000 Argentia Road, Plaza 2, Suite 300
                Mississauga, Ont.   L5N 1V8
                Phone: (416) 542-6300    Fax: (416) 858-2233
From: cl130000@ulkyvx.louisville.edu
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: We need dBaseIV help!
Date: 28 Sep 92 20:35:38 GMT
Organization: University of Louisville


  We are having some trouble with dBase IV.  First, does this version support
the mouse?  If so, how do you activate it.  The mouse is connected and the
software is in memory.  Second, when working with the DATE data type, how do
you enter null values into the year?  We need to enter something like '**'
because some people don't want us to know how old they are.  Any help would be
greatly appreciated.

Thanx, in addvance.

dBase Pros! (not!)
cl130000@ulkyvm.louisville.edu
Newsgroups: comp.databases
From: dlucy@sandr.COM (Douglas Lucy)
Subject: Re: Bullet Proof Network Database Wanted
Organization: S&R Software, Inc.
Date: Tue, 06 Oct 1992 19:19:25 GMT
Summary: PROGRESS RDBMS has 2 levels of crash protection
Keywords: network database unix reliable

In article <1992Oct5.171449.7022@combdyn.CombDynLtd.MedicineHat.AB.CA>
 lawrence@combdyn.CombDynLtd.MedicineHat.AB.CA (Lawrence Chen) writes:

> I'm looking for either a Network Database product or a way to make
> Raima Data Manager for UNIX that's capable of surviving powerfailures.
>
> Our application is in use by the Military which have a requirement that the
> systems be able to survive random power outages.  Aside from the fact that
> not having at least one outage a day is considered a miracle.
>
> If its not possible to have the database bullet proof to this kind of failure,
> at least have enough redundancy that its auto-recovery can fix the damage....
> even if it means losing the current transaction, just as long as the system
> remains usable.

PROGRESS RDBMS (from Progress Software Corp in Bedford, MASS) has two
levels of crash protection: the first is an automatic,
transaction-bounded recovery of the database designed specifically to
protect against server failure (i.e. powerloss); the second is a
deeper level of protection that must be specified at the time the
server is started and needs two separate hard disks to provide
hardware-level failure recovery. These protections are one of the most
important features of Progress (for us).

Progress is available for almost all Unix platforms and the weird
stuff like DOS and VMS and CTOS/BTOS.

I'm sure Oracle and Informix have similar recovery mechanisms.
-- 
| Doug Lucy        | "I'm just sipping champagne like a good tycoon..."  |
| S&R Software Inc |                                   -Floyd, Pink      |
| dlucy@sandr.com  |                                                     |
Newsgroups: comp.databases
From: durai@ORTTA (Appadurai V.)
Subject: Re: Foxpro - help with radio button objects
Organization: U of Mn
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 13:24:18 GMT

In article <fragante.718321710@unixg.ubc.ca> fragante@unixg.ubc.ca (Gv Fragante) writes:

>Does anyone have a method of deselecting a radio button ?

>In my case, I have a set of radio buttons used for Yes/No questions. Sometimes
>the user wants to unselect a Yes or No (i.e. - keep it blank or "unanswered").
>Is there a built-in way to do this in FoxPro ? If not built-in, how can this
>be achieved through programming ?

I have not fully understood your q.  If you are using radio buttons, 
selection of one button should automatically release the other button.
If you want another action, then I would suggest that you add one more 
choice..like '*R Yes;No;Hold'... you can make the buttons either terminating 
or non-terminating, which of course, you know.

>Also, is there a command/functions similar to OBJNUM() and _CUROBJ that can
>tell me the type of control (i.e. - radio, push button, pop-up list) that
>a field is using ?

I have felt the need many times.  Unless you have to do some action based 
on "object type" at run time, you can store all the details about controls 
in a sort of "data dictionary" database.  

If you want to know the details during run time, you may want to pass the 
details using a "when" routine.  

(If you get a better idea, keep this poor soul in mind.)
Xref: sparky comp.databases:7030 comp.lang.eiffel:1213
From: aflynn@osc.COM (Anthony Flynn)
Newsgroups: comp.databases,comp.lang.eiffel
Subject: Re: ODBMS interfaces to Eiffel
Summary: Re:ODBMS Interfaces to Eiffel
Keywords: Object-Oriented Database, Eiffel
Date: 28 Sep 92 19:07:38 GMT
Followup-To: poster
Organization: Versant Object Technology, Menlo Park, CA

In article <1992Sep24.175152.15271@actrix.gen.nz>, Des.Kenny@bbs.actrix.gen.nz writes:
> Hi,
> 
> I am looking for information on any projects or products that provide
> interfaces from Eiffel to Object-Oriented Database systems.
> 
> Thanks
> 

Interactive Software Engineering, Inc is developing an Eiffel interface 
in conjunction with Versant Object Technology. The interface will allow 
users to develop applications using the Versant ODBMS, taking advantage 
of Versant's distributed, client-server architecture.

The Versant-Eiffel interface will be integrated into "EiffelStore" -
a collection of class libraries for interfacing from Eiffel to 
relational and object-oriented databases, available from ISE.

Further information from:

Geoff Noakes,
Versant Object Technology
(415) 329-7500
(415)325-2380 (fax)

or

Burghardt Tenderich
Interactive Software Engineering
(805) 685-1006
From: mccann@plains.NoDak.edu (Lester I. McCann)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Does ANYONE know of a Postgres port to AIX?
Date: 29 Sep 92 00:44:48 GMT
Article-I.D.: plains.20770
Organization: North Dakota Higher Education Computing Network

I'm a new faculty member at a university with one UNIX system -- an IBM
RS/6000-550 running AIX 3.2.  My research and teaching interests are
in the area of database systems, and I would very much like to be able
to install Postgres on our RS/6000.  The Postgres development group
doesn't support an AIX version, of course, and I am reluctant to order
a copy of the tape (we aren't on the Internet yet) on the hope that we
could do the port ourselves.

If you've ported Postgres to the AIX, or even just know of someone who has,
please drop me a note.  I'd love to get an offer of a tape containing the
port, but I'd be happy with some porting tips from someone who's done it
and I'd settle for a politely worded "it ain't worth the trouble to try."

I've already sent notes to the Postgres mailing list and to
postgres-questions@postgres.berkeley.edu -- no luck so far, and incredibly
only one reply!  I'd be very surprised if no one has even made an attempt.
If you have any information, please let me know.  Thank you.

Lester McCann
University of Central Oklahoma, Dept. of Computing Science
100 N. University Drive
Edmond, OK  73034
(405) 341-2980 x5292
mccann@plains.nodak.edu
Newsgroups: comp.databases
From: rmc@davidge.com (Robert Cianchette)
Subject: Re: Which Database for the MAC ????
Organization: Davidge Data Systems Corp., NYC, NY
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 92 20:06:26 GMT

>rpatel@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Rachana D Patel) writes:
>
>>Hello.
>
>>I am debating over which database system to purchase for the Mac. 
>>Right now I am considering Double Helix Express or Omnis Seven. 
>>Have any of you had experience with either of them?
>>To me, Omnis seems too expensive but is it worth it?
>
>>I am going to be using this database to store data for publications 
>>(ie specific library data for books, magazines, etc.). I will also need
>>the system to transfer on-line data into the database. I think both
>>Double Helix and Omnis could do the job? However, if you have any insight
>>please share it with me.
>
>>--
>>Rachana D. Patel                              Fishman-Davidson Center
>>rpatel@eniac.seas.upenn.edu	                for the Study of the 
>>University of Pennsylvania   			Service Sector  
>>Management and Technology Program             Wharton School of Business     

If you are simply looking for a bibliographic database program (as opposed
to an integrated library system) you would be better off to stick with a
product written for that purpose.  General database products, no matter
how robust for handling general data, are not good at dealing with text-
based data or bibliographic data (in my experience, due to limits on
field lengths, indexing features, and reporting).  There is a product
called Pro-Cite which is made specifically for bibliographic data.  It
is available for the Mac, and the manufacturer, PBS in Ann Arbor, MI, 
also sells utilities for downloading data from a variety of online
database services.  I used this to create a library database about 3 years
ago, and the only problem I had was a 30K limit on the size of a print file,
(on the Mac version only) which they were supposed to fix in the next 
version.  This may not be a problem if you don't care about creating a
printed catalog.  Other than that, I thought is was a very good product,
and all the work of creating a database that deals specifically with
bibliographic data is already done for you!  

Robert

-- 
Robert Cianchette, Davidge Data Systems Corp., NYC | rmc@davidge.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 The information, questions, and opinions contained in this message 
  are mine and are not representative of Davidge Data Systems Corp.
Newsgroups: comp.databases
From: ray@TorreyPinesCA.ncr.com (Ray Shapouri 3547)
Subject: Do you know "bit Per Second"
Organization: NCR (Torrey Pines Development Center)
Disclaimer: This posting does not neccessarily reflect the opinions of NCR.
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 20:37:09 GMT

I am trying to locate a British company:
	Bits Per Second 

They have a product which is called "DGE" that provides
a graphic mode for DBs on IBM based machines.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 ___   ___ 
(  ,) / __)  Ray.Shapouri@TorreyPinesCA.ncr.com
 )  \ \__ \  NCR -- TPDC (ucsd.edu!sv020!ray)
(_)\_)(___/  (619) 597-3547  VoicePlus 466-3547
-- 

 ___   ___ 
(  ,) / __)  Ray.Shapouri@TorreyPinesCA.ncr.com
 )  \ \__ \  NCR -- TPDC (ucsd.edu!sv020!ray)
(_)\_)(___/  (619) 597-3547  VoicePlus 466-3547
From: DonD@cup.portal.com (Don Robert DeCosta)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: Data Base design pet peeve
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 92 21:48:24 PDT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
  <1992Sep28.001827.1038@RedBrick.COM>

>This notion of "planning for the future" as a justification for choosing
>one type of data representation (possibly the wrong one) over another
>always elude me.  If the guy KNOWS his database isn't going to grow
>over 99 customers, maybe he should use a ONE BYTE integer instead of
>a TWO BYTE one, hey?  Wouldn't this save even more space?  And if he
>has made a mistake and needs more than 32767 (or 64K if you support
>unsigned ints), then shouldn't he use a FOUR BYTE integer from the
>start?  Why is TWO BYTEs inherently better than any other choice the
>user might decide to make?

My DBMS doesn't support one byte integers so the 2 byte integer to 2 byte
string seemed a good basis for my argument, I think saying "I want to
have 16 million customers so why should I store 8 characters when I
could just store 3 bytes..." would have sounded like a forced argument.
I was trying to say, in the same 2 bytes I'd have a more expandable
database with the same or less overhead.

>Anecdote time:
 [stuff deleted]
>system was written with the interest rates defined (in both files and 
>programs) as 9V999 (for the COBOL-impaired among you, this is sort of like
 [stuff deleted]

I am COBOL-impaired but I assume that's packed decimal?  Wouldn't 99V999
have fit in the same number of bytes, require the same amount of
conversion to an external format AND saved you from all the re-write,
providing a more flexible system with the same overhead?
You can't ignore the physical data when designing your logical database.
(before you argue the arbitrary-ness of 99.999, a percentage field really
should be able to handle everything upto but just under 100%, if it goes
over 100% then it is not a percentage but rather a multiplier and different
rules need to be discussed. (and I didn't decide .999 was just under 1,
your predecessors did))

>BTW, as another point, the argument is made that using an integer is
>"faster" than using a character string.  But what about the effort
>involved in converting integers to character strings for external
>representation?  So maybe searching on a string is slightly longer
>(although I don't necessarily agree with this thesis and it certainly
>depends on the processor) but converting to and from internal format
>will be much longer for the integer than for the string.  The main point

As has been stated by other posters, the customer_id should be an internal
key and should never have to be formatted for external display.  Also, even
if your processor has a string compare instruction I'm sure it'll take
more clock cycles to execute than a 2 byte integer compare.

>Jon Rosen
>jfr@redbrick.com


Don DeCosta           |The nice thing about sanity is|  VM/Nomad2
DonD@cup.portal.com   |you can lose it more than once|  Amiga/Imagine
From: arzt@enexte.dccs.upenn.edu (Noam H. Arzt)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Flat file database for Unix?
Date: 30 Sep 92 03:27:49 GMT

Believe it or not, I am looking for a SIMPLE flat file database for Unix.  
By simple, I mean it does not need to be relational, nor GUI. I mean a  
product like Filemaker on the Mac or any number of products on PC's  
(everything from PFS: File to Alpha Four). It occurred to me that given  
all the solutions available for all kinds of things, I could not think of  
a good way to deliver database application to terminal-based Unix users.

Am I missing something obvious?

Regards,

Mr. Noam Arzt                            215/898-3029 (voice)
Director, Special Projects               215/898-9348 (FAX)
University of Pennsylvania               arzt@dccs.upenn.edu
Data Communications & Computing Services (NeXTmail is OK)
Suite 221A, 3401 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Newsgroups: comp.databases,comp.databases.ingres,comp.databases.informix
From: sethg@dcatlas.dot.gov (Seth Grimes)
Subject: Re: QUEL query language
Organization: U.S Dept. of Transportation
Distribution: na
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1992 18:28:45 GMT

norton@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Glenn A Norton) writes:

>  Are there any QUEL references available on the network, or any books availableon the subject?

Do you mean Ingres QUEL or Postgres QUEL?  What are you looking for beyond
manuals, if you mean Ingres?  For either, you can probably find copies of
research papers.

Seth Grimes, dcatlas!sethg@uunet.uu.net
Xref: sparky comp.databases:6978 comp.sys.mac.databases:1205
From: rpatel@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Rachana D Patel)
Newsgroups: comp.databases,comp.sys.mac.databases
Subject: Flat vs Relational ??
Date: 28 Sep 92 20:52:37 GMT
Followup-To: comp.databases
Organization: University of Pennsylvania


This is a simple question but could someone tell me the advantages
of having a relational database versus a flat database.

If you haven't seen my previous questions, I will be compliling a
database with bibliographical information.

Thanks in advance

--
Rachana D. Patel                              Fishman-Davidson Center
rpatel@eniac.seas.upenn.edu	                for the Study of the 
University of Pennsylvania   			Service Sector  
Management and Technology Program             Wharton School of Business     
Newsgroups: comp.databases
From: mazzucch@ghost.dsi.unimi.it (massimo mazzucchi)
Subject: clipper and scanner
Keywords: clIPPer and scanner
Organization: Computer Science Dep. - Milan University
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 16:35:28 GMT


Hi

I am a programmer with CLIPPER
i want know

- what is the library that permit to use image with scanner
  with clipper

  - what is the bbs where i can have to access to get
    this librAry


    Thanks for your help

    My address is mazzucch@ghost.sm.dsi.unimi.it


    Bye