System procedures and functions

Following is a list of system procedure and function enhancements added in SQL Anywhere version 12.0.0.

  • New sa_text_index_vocab_nchar system procedure   This new system procedure is for use with NCHAR text indexes and is equivalent to sa_text_index_vocab. See sa_text_index_vocab_nchar system procedure.

  • New sa_copy_cursor_to_temp_table system procedure   Copies the contents of a cursor to a temporary table. See sa_copy_cursor_to_temp_table system procedure.

  • New sa_describe_cursor system procedure   Returns the name and data types of columns in a cursor. While this information can be retrieved from various client programming interfaces, it was not previously accessible within stored procedures. See sa_describe_cursor system procedure.

  • New sa_install_feature system procedure   Installs additional features that were not present in the database when SQL Anywhere was installed. See sa_install_feature system procedure.

  • New sa_list_cursors system procedure   Returns a result set with one row for each of the cursors maintained by the database server for this connection. The result set gives the cursor name, a value indicating whether the cursor is currently open, and other meta information. See sa_list_cursors system procedure.

  • New sa_mirror_server_status system procedure   This procedure reports the status of copy nodes in the tree below the database server on which the procedure is run. See sa_mirror_server_status system procedure.

  • New sa_reserved_words system procedure   This procedure returns a list of SQL Anywhere reserved words. See sa_reserved_words system procedure.

  • Enhancements to the sa_server_option system procedure   The following options have been added to the sa_server_option system procedure:

    • AutoMultiProgrammingLevel
    • AutoMultiProgrammingLevelStatistics
    • CurrentMultiProgrammingLevel
    • DropBadStatistics
    • DropUnusedStatistics
    • IPAddressMonitorPeriod
    • MaxMultiProgrammingLevel
    • MinMultiProgrammingLevel
    • StatisticsCleaner

    See sa_server_option system procedure.

  • Enhancements to the sa_table_page_usage system procedure   When the progress_messages database option is set to Raw or Formatted, progress messages are sent from the database server to the client while this system procedure is running. See sa_table_page_usage system procedure.

  • Enhancements to the xp_read_file system procedure   The xp_read_file system procedure now includes an optional parameter that allows you to specify lazy reads. When you specify this optional parameter and its value is not zero, the file is read and then immediately unlocked. See xp_read_file system procedure.

  • Enhancements to the xp_startsmtp system procedure   The xp_startsmtp system procedure supports four new parameters: trusted_certificates, certificate_company, certificate_unit, and certificate_name. These parameters allow you to send mail using secure SMTP. You must upgrade your database to use this feature. See xp_startsmtp system procedure.

  • Enhancements to the openxml system procedure   The openxml system procedure now supports USING FILE and USING VALUE clauses that allow you to load data from a file or expression of CHAR, NCHAR, BINARY, or LONG BINARY type, or BLOB string, respectively. See openxml system procedure.

  • New MEDIAN function   Computes the median of a numeric expression for a set of rows. See MEDIAN function [Aggregate].

  • Enhancement to the HASH function   The HASH function now accepts the CRC32 algorithm type. See HASH function [String].

  • Enhancements to the BIT_OR, BIT_AND, and BIT_XOR functions   The BIT_OR, BIT_AND, and BIT_XOR functions now support integer values and binary values. Also, BIT_OR, BIT_AND, and BIT_XOR functions can now be used in parallel execution plans.

    See:

  • Enhancements to the DATEADD, DATEDIFF, DATEPART, and DATENAME functions   The microsecond date part and the TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE data type are now supported by the DATEADD, DATEDIFF, DATEPART, and DATENAME functions. See:

  • Enhancements to the DB_EXTENDED_PROPERTY function   You can now use the DB_EXTENDED_PROPERTY function with the MirrorServerState and MirrorState properties to determine the synchronization and connection status of a mirror server. See DB_EXTENDED_PROPERTY function [System].

  • New HTTP_RESPONSE_HEADER function   Returns the value of an HTTP response header. See HTTP_RESPONSE_HEADER function [Web service].

  • Enhancements to HTTP_VARIABLE function   You can now use the @BINARY attribute to return an x-www-form-urlencoded binary data value. See HTTP_VARIABLE function [Web service].

  • New ISENCRYPTED function   Determines if a string is encrypted. See ISENCRYPTED function [System].

  • New NEXT_HTTP_RESPONSE_HEADER function   Gets the next HTTP response header name. See NEXT_HTTP_RESPONSE_HEADER function [Web service].

  • New SWITCHOFFSET function   Returns a TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE value that is converted from its original time zone offset to the specified time zone offset. See SWITCHOFFSET function [Date and time].

  • New SYSDATETIMEOFFSET function   Returns the current date, time, and time zone offset of the database server. See SYSDATETIMEOFFSET function [Date and time].

  • New TODATETIMEOFFSET function   Converts a TIMESTAMP value to a TIME STAMP WITH TIME ZONE value using the specified time zone offset. See TODATETIMEOFFSET function [Date and time].

  • New COUNT_BIG function   Counts the number of rows in a group depending on the specified parameters. See COUNT_BIG function [Aggregate].