Hi All – We recently had an online webcast about SQL Passthru by Genevieve Monet and received a great deal of responses. You can view the recording online at http://www.informationbuilders.com/events/seminars/SQLPT.html

Here are some questions and answers about SQL Passthru:

1. What is SQL Passthru?

SQL Passthru is the ability for FOCUS and WebFOCUS to pass native SQL commands DIRECTLY to an SQL engine, and to process and format the answer set, using the full formatting and extraction capabilities of FOCUS and WebFOCUS.

2. What do I need to use SQL Passthru?

A user needs ACCESS to the SQL engine, either through direct settings, or through the environment established for FOCUS and WebFOCUS. In addition, the user need to be able to formulate a correctly structured SQL query for the underlying SQL engine.

3. Where can I use it?

You can use SQL Passthru anywhere you could issue native FOCUS commands. This may through a file containing SQL commands, from the client or server in WebFOCUS, or from Developers Studio.

4. When should I use it?

SQL Passthru might be used for the following reasons:

A. Optimized SQL already exists to retrieve the desired answer set (Focus language used for formatting only)
B. What needs to be done does not translate from the FOCUS language (i.e. UNION, right outer join, etc.)
C. End user is familiar with SQL, but not the FOCUS language (taking advantage of the FOCUS/WebFOCUS environment) .

5. How does it work?

The SQL request is passed to the engine for execution. The answer set is returned as an internally described file called SQLOUT. Thus, a user could issue a TABLE against file SQLOUT, and have all the FOCUS language capabilities available from TABLE, for use on this answer set. This includes:

A. COMPUTES
B. WHERE/IF TOTAL
C. HOLD in various formats

If you have additional questions please feel to contact us!