[An Old] Intro to Sybase

Top Level Table of Contents

• Detailed Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Client/Server Architecture
• Transact SQL
• Stored Procedures
• Triggers
• Security & Ownership
• Remote Procedure Calls
• Openservers
• Advanced Topics

Detailed Table of Contents

• Introduction
  • What Is This?
  • Who Wrote This?
• Client/Server Architecture
  • Clients and Servers
  • Transact-SQL
  • Stored Procedures Intro
  • The Architectural Significance of Stored Procedures and Triggers
  • Stored Procedures and Objects
  • Server to Server RPC's
  • Openservers and Gateways
  • Omni and Replication Servers
  • Pro's and Con's of Client/Server
  • Where Sybase Fits In
• Transact SQL
  • Databases Within a Server
  • Transact-SQL and Sybase Databases
  • Miscellaneous Notes on Submitting SQL
  • What has Sybase Done to SQL?
  • Local Variables
  • Control of Flow in Transact-SQL
  • Other Transact-SQL Stuff
  • Sybase vs IBM Datatypes
  • Global Variables
  • raiserror
  • Transactions
  • Transactions and Locking
• Stored Procedures
  • Stored Procedure with Parameters
  • How to Invoke Stored Procedures
  • Stored Procedure Return Status
  • Other Stored Procedure Parameter Stuff
  • Stored Procedure Execution Plans
  • When & Where to Use Stored Procedures
• Triggers
  • General Info About Triggers
  • Inserted & Deleted Virtual Tables
  • Misc Notes on Triggers
  • Triggers and Transactions
  • Notes on Transactions in Sybase
  • Trigger Examples
  • Triggers and Referential Integrity
  • Referential Integrity in Release 10
  • Triggers to Enforce Other Rules
• Security & Ownership
  • Groups in Sybase
  • Ownership of Database Objects
  • Defaults for Referencing Objects
  • Grants with Views and Stored Procedures
• Remote Procedure Calls
  • RPC Syntax and Examples
  • Example of RPC With "out" Parameters
  • What About Select's in the RPC
  • RPC's Directly From the Client
  • An Example RPC Application
• Openservers
  • What is an Openserver?
  • How Does the Client Access an Openserver
  • Typical Openserver Applications
  • The Sybase Net-Gateway
  • Utility Openserver
• Advanced Topics
  • Recovery Issues
  • Transaction Logs Filling Up
  • Holdlock verses Browse Mode
  • tempdb
  • bulkcopy
  • Select/into verses Insert/select
  • System Tables
  • Text and Image Fields
  • Showplan/noexec Query Tuning

Introduction

What Is This?

This is a very old introduction to Sybase.   It was created in the mid 1990's as part of a consulting project I was working on.   Since it was never used, I went ahead and posted this tutorial on the web.   This tutorial was originally posted within the DC Area Sybase Users' Group web page.

NOTE, this tutorial hasn't updated to reflect Sybase's technological advancements since the mid 1990's and is therefore missing many new features in Sybase.

I'm hoping this tutorial is still relatively useful since most new features of Sybase are additions rather than changes to the basic features described here.  The exception to this might be the Openserver functionality, which has probably changed dramatically.

This tutorial attempts to do the following:

1. To explain the Sybase software architecture.
2. To show the main features of Transact-SQL and to provide examples of code using these features.

This tutorial is oriented towards people who already know SQL, but don't know much about Sybase.

Remote procedure calls and openservers are emphasized in this tutorial, because that's what I find (found) interesting.

Who Wrote This?

Ben Slade - Formerly a software consultant specializing in Sybase and configuration management.  More recently, a software consultant working on web related technologies.

Other activities include software methodologies, digital electronics design, marine aquaria, frisbee, and ranting about the pathetic transportation infrastructure in the Washington DC area (the last issue has only gotten worse since this document was originally created in the mid 1990's)

I can be reached at:

This document is free and you get what you pay for. I apologize in advance for any inaccuracies. All corrections/suggestions concerning this document or anything else are appreciated, as long as they're nice.

Standard copyright warnings apply to this document.  However, this document may be reproduced and distributed freely, even for educational use within businesses, as long as you're not making money by selling this document as your own product.

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