On 4/13/06, Gregory Woodhouse <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Apr 13, 2006, at 6:28 AM, Kevin Toppenberg wrote: > > > My knowledge of SQL is extremely limited, so bear with me... > > > > My understanding of SQL is that one describes the results one wants. > > e.g. (SEX=MALE,AGE>35,LNAME=SMITH) and then a set of results is > > returned. Now, Bhaskar has written that there is a commercial product > > that allows access to GT.M globals through a SQL interface--although > > it bypasses all of Fileman's triggers, cross-references etc. > > That's right. In the jargon, SQL is declarative but not procedural. > Unfortunately, there is a relatively straightforward translation to > what is called relational algebra, giving a prescription (albeit not > one that is necessarily very efficient) for carrying out a given > query. In practice, you may find these "brute force" searches used > more often than they should. > > > > > But I wonder how the searching aspect of this all works. Does SQL > > require the use of pre-created indexes? > > It should. How effectively they are used probably varies from product > to product. But, in any case, there is a reason why you find books > with titles like "SQL Performance Tuning". Often, queries end up > being expressed in awkward or unnatural ways because the RDBMS > doesn't do a particularly good job of optimization. > > > FIND^DIC seems to be only > > able to search for stuff when a pre-created cross reference exists. > > Pretty much. > > > > Wouldn't it be nice to have the ability to do descriptive searches in > > Fileman? It CAN be done interactively via Fileman Search, but it > > can't be done programatically. (Actually it wouldn't take much create > > an API to fill in the search criteria in a TEMPLATE which could then > > be used to do what I am desribing). > > I agree. This is something that really needs to be added to Fileman. > >
Thanks for your agreement, Greg. What I don't understand is why I am the only one asking for this. It seems, to me, to be a vary BASIC tool that a database should offer. I also think that I have looked at this closer than others and believe I am closer to being able to figure out how to write an API that would plug into the core functionality of Fileman's SEARCH code. Its just that it would likely take me quite a while to get it fully working. And its just easier to write my own search code each time I need this. I really wish someone smarter than I (Hint, Hint, George Timpson) would plug this hole. It would probably take them one a day or so.... Kevin ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by xPML, a groundbreaking scripting language that extends applications into web and mobile media. Attend the live webcast and join the prime developer group breaking into this new coding territory! http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid0944&bid$1720&dat1642 _______________________________________________ Hardhats-members mailing list Hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members
