ALLBASE/SQL Reference Manual (36216-90216)

Appendix D 665
Standards Flagging Support
Introduction
D Standards Flagging Support
Introduction
The United States government has adopted ANSI X3.135-1989, Database Language SQL,
as the database language to be used by all federal departments and agencies. This SQL
standard, known as Federal Information Processing Standard 127.1 (FIPSPUB 127.1),
requires that an option be provided which flags all features or extensions that do not
conform to the SQL language or are processed in a nonconforming manner. FIPS 127.1 also
has added an optional integrity enhancement feature, addendum 1, to X3.135-1989.
Addendum 1 includes referential integrity constraints, a check clause, and a default
clause. A feature does not have to be flagged if it conforms to addendum 1.
The SQL standard does not contain functionality for many common categories, such as
storage management and index creation. While many of these non-standard features are
useful, they can reduce the portability of programs that use them. Most SQL
implementations (including ALLBASE/SQL) support implementation-defined features
that do not conform to FIPS 127.1. These non-standard implementation features are of
concern to users who want to port programs and who need to identify features that do not
conform to FIPS 127.1. In order to recognize features and extensions that do not conform
to the SQL standard, FIPS 127.1 requires that a flagger capability be implemented that
identifies any non-standard features. This flag can be implemented through software or in
documentation. In addition to this appendix, ALLBASE/SQL provides flagger options for
preprocessing and a SET FLAGGER command in ISQL. Refer to the ALLBASE/SQL
Advanced Application Programming Guide and the ALLBASE/ISQL Refernece Manual
respectively for related documentation.