Hi,

At September 16, 2004, 19:48, Helen Borrie wrote:

> How big of a leap would it be to implement these temp tables as a special
> class of external tables? I seem to recall, Ann, that you said there was
> already unfinished stuff in place to support structured external table
> files (dBase, CSV?)

Actually, this is now covered by the SQL-2003 standard, via foreign
data wrappers. The standard also defines the API that can be used for
the foreign data wrappers to develop the plugins. It's named
Management of External Data (SQL/MED), under SQL-2003 standards.

The foreign data wrappers would also permit to connect to other
database servers, since it is part of the definition. And, would give
the import/export flexibility that a lot of users are seeking. They
would be able to create their own data wrapper for their specific file
format.

--
Best regards,
Daniel Rail
Senior System Engineer
ACCRA Group Inc. (www.accra.ca)
ACCRA Med Software Inc. (www.filopto.com)