Helen, thank you so much for your detailed explanation.
that helps alot and i really appreciate it!

Helen Borrie wrote:

>
> At 02:35 PM 17/01/2008, you wrote:
>
> >so all i have to do is specify more clearly which table stu_index and
> >pro_index are in?
>
> Hmmm, well, I guess that's a vague way to say it. Technically
> speaking, you are required to supply fully-qualified column names,
> i.e. qualifier.columnname, in all clauses of multi-table queries. If
> you use relation aliases (as you should) then you use the relation
> alias as the qualifier. If you use relation names (table, view or
> procedure names) then you use the relation name as the qualifier.
>
> But you'll notice there's one more correction here:
>
> >Helen Borrie wrote:
> >> select
> >> ss.*,
> >> d.pro_index
> >> from s_students ss
>
> - indicating that you need to qualify the output columns and also
> include any column[s] that are referenced in the ORDER BY clause.
>
> >> left outer join s_contracts sc on
> >> (sc.stu_index=ss.stu_index and sc.contract_active='Y'
> >> left outer join d_programs d on
> >> (sc.program = d.program_code)
> >> /* guessing location of WHERE and ORDER BY fields */
> >> where ss.stu_index=345
> >> order by d.pro_index
>
> You wrote:
> >sorry if this is the wrong group...
>
> It's the wrong group to be asking about the differences between IB and
> Firebird. This group is about IB Objects and your application code.
> IBO will throw the exceptions that are returned from the database,
> regardless of whether your IBO application is attaching to a Fb or an
> IB Server. The REASONS for the exceptions come from SQL language
> incompatibilities between the *different* database engines. Solving
> the SQL questions belongs in firebird-support but we don't mind
> helping you to understand why IBO has thrown an exception.
>
> If you're asking about an IBO problem, make sure you state which
> database engine and version and which IBO version you're using. It
> really does matter A LOT!!
>
> If you're changing over to Firebird, one of your important resources
> has to be Firebird release notes. As a collection, the Fb 1.5.5 and Fb
> 2.1 releasenotes, along with the Quickstart Guides and the IB 6.0 Beta
> manuals *are* your Firebird manuals.
>
> InterBase has had a long (and ongoing) tradition of letting you use
> illegal or ambiguous SQL syntaxes. Firebird, version by version, gets
> progressively less tolerant of such syntaxes. They are all documented
> *cumulatively* in the release notes: Fb 1.0.x and Fb 1.5 in the Fb
> 1.5.5 notes, Fb 2.0.x and Fb 2.1 in the *latest* Fb 2.1 notes, all
> downloadable via Firebird's Documentation Index.
>
> Helen
>
>