On Fri, 30 Jun 2000 03:38:25 -0400, Claudio Valderrama C. wrote:

>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: John Lim [mailto:johnlim@...]
>> Sent: Jueves 29 de Junio de 2000 3:28
>>
>> That's what I like about SQL -- no vendor's will work with another --
>> even after over 20 years. :-(
>
>Of course, no vendor will work with another... if you use non-standard
>extensions. In this regard, IB is in good position: you might feel
>constrained, but there's a good chance that your SQL statements will be
>understood by several other engines.

Yes, this is a good thing about IB.

>> And its so confusing -- someone just rebuked me because I forgot that
>> oracle uses || for string concat -- even though I spent one year of
>> my life (1996) working with Oracle.
>
> Probably because the standard mandates || same as in Oracle and Interbase,
>whereas MS and Sybase use + because they think they're better departing from
>the standard. AFAICT, IBM was the one that started with || as a
>concatenation... it exists even on IBM's interpreted languages.

It started with || because the SQL borned in their labs much time ago.
And they like the || (I definetely prefer "+", but they do the same thing,
it's only a question of taste).


[]s Fabricio
Delphi C/S Developer