B Supported SQL Syntax and Functions

This appendix contains the following sections:

B.1 Supported SQL Statements

With a few exceptions, the gateway provides full support for Oracle DELETE, INSERT, SELECT, and UPDATE statements.

The gateway does not support Oracle data definition language (DDL) statements. No form of the Oracle ALTER, CREATE, DROP, GRANT, or TRUNCATE statements can be used. Instead, for ALTER, CREATE, DROP, and GRANT statements, use the pass-through feature of the gateway if you need to use DDL statements against the Sybase database.

Note:

TRUNCATE cannot be used in a pass-through statement.

See Also:

Oracle Database SQL Language Reference for detailed descriptions of keywords, parameters, and options and the Sybase documentation for details of executing SQL statements in a transaction.

B.1.1 DELETE

The DELETE statement is fully supported. However, only Oracle functions supported by Sybase can be used.

See Also:

"Functions Supported by Sybase" for a list of supported functions.

B.1.2 INSERT

The INSERT statement is fully supported. However, only Oracle functions supported by Sybase can be used.

See Also:

"Functions Supported by Sybase" for a list of supported functions.

B.1.3 SELECT

The SELECT statement is fully supported, with these exceptions:

  • CONNECT BY condition

  • NOWAIT

  • START WITH condition

  • WHERE CURRENT OF

B.1.4 UPDATE

The UPDATE statement is fully supported. However, only Oracle functions supported by Sybase can be used. Also, you cannot have SQL statements in the subquery that refer to the same table name in the outer query. Subqueries are not supported in the SET clause.

See Also:

"Functions Supported by Sybase" for a list of supported functions.

B.2 Oracle Functions

All functions are evaluated by the Sybase database after the gateway has converted them to Sybase SQL.

B.2.1 Functions Not Supported by Sybase

Oracle SQL functions with no equivalent function in Sybase are not supported in DELETE, INSERT, or UPDATE statements, but are evaluated by the Oracle database if the statement is a SELECT statement. That is, the Oracle database performs post-processing of SELECT statements sent to the gateway.

If an unsupported function is used in a DELETE, INSERT, or UPDATE, statement, the following Oracle error occurs:

ORA-02070: database db_link_name does not support function in this context

B.2.2 Functions Supported by Sybase

The gateway translates the following Oracle database functions in SQL statements to their equivalent Sybase functions:

B.2.2.1 Arithmetic Operators

Oracle Sybase
+ +
- -
* *
/ /

B.2.2.2 Comparison Operators

Oracle Sybase
= =
> >
< <
>= >=
<= <=
<>, !=, ^= <>, !=
IS NOT NULL IS NOT NULL
IS NULL IS NULL

B.2.2.3 Group Functions

Oracle Sybase
AVG AVG
COUNT COUNT
MAX MAX
MIN MIN
SUM SUM

B.2.2.4 String Functions

Oracle Sybase
|| + (expression1 + expression2)
ASCII ASCII
CHR CHAR
INSTR CHARINDEX
LENGTH CHAR_LENGTH
LOWER LOWER
SUBSTR (second argument cannot be a negative number) SUBSTRING
UPPER UPPER

B.2.2.5 Other Functions

Oracle Sybase
ABS ABS
CEIL CEILING
COS COS
EXP EXP
FLOOR FLOOR
LN LOG
LOG LOG10
MOD %
NOT NVL IS NOT NULL
NVL IS NULL
POWER POWER
ROUND ROUND
SIN SIN
SQRT SQRT
TAN TAN