SQL/MP Glossary

Glossary
Compaq NonStop™ SQL/MP Glossary—429832-001
Glossary-4
character set
character set. A set of characters that can be associated with columns, literals, host variables,
parameters, functions, and expressions that have a character data type.
NonStop SQL/MP supports the ASCII character set, ISO 8859/1 through ISO 8859/9
character sets, Kanji character set, and KSC5601 character set. See also system default
national character set and UNKNOWN character set.
clustering key. A group of columns that forms a potentially nonunique key to determine the
physical row order or partitioning of a key-sequenced table. The columns of a clustering
key followed by the system-generated SYSKEY column make up the primary key for
the table. Although SYSKEY is the last column in a primary key that includes a
clustering key, SYSKEY is the first physical column in the table. Contrast with user-
defined primary key. See also primary key.
COBOL85 preprocessor. See SQL preprocessor
.
collating sequence. See collation
.
collation. An object that contains rules for collating sequence (the sequence in which
characters are ordered for sorting), upshifting, downshifting, character class, and
character string equivalence within a character set. A collation associated with a column
defines the default sort order for column values.
collation compiler. A compiler, invoked by the CREATE COLLATION statement, that
translates user-defined collating sequences from external format to an internal format
used by the operating system software. See also collation
.
collation source file. A file in which a user specifies rules for collating sequence, upshifting,
downshifting, character class, and character equivalence within a character set. A
CREATE COLLATION statement includes the name of a collation source file, which
the collation compiler compiles during the CREATE operation.
column. A vertical component of a table; the relational representation of a field in a record. A
column contains one data value for each row of the table. Contrast with row
.
column attribute. An attribute that describes the data that a column can contain and how the
data is stored. Column attributes include character set, collation, data type, default value,
heading, help text, row order (ascending or descending), nullable, and UPSHIFT.
column heading. Text specified in a HEADING clause in a CREATE TABLE or ALTER
TABLE statement to replace the column name in display or printed output.
column identifier. A column name, column number, alias name, or detail alias name used in
a report command to identify a column in the select list.
column name. An SQL identifier used to identify a column in a table. A table name or
correlation name can qualify the column name to make it unique within an SQL
statement.
command file. See OBEY command file
.