At 08:29 AM 17/09/2004 -0300, Daniel Rail wrote:

>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.

Daniel,

Thanks for switching my message to a new thread. I've now switched it
back. The subject of foreign data wrappers isn't on the agenda. An
implementation of temporary tables is.

So, rather than hear about the standard for foreign data wrappers, I'd like
to see some comments about the idea of implementing temporary tables as
external tables.

Thanks.
Helen