Interactive SQL Connections

You must connect to your database in order to manage it with Interactive SQL.

In the Connect dialog, you tell Interactive SQL what database you want to connect to, where it is located, and how you want to connect to it.

The connecting process depends on your situation. For example, if you have a server already running on your machine and this server contains only one database, all you have to do in the Connect dialog is provide a user ID and a password. Interactive SQL then knows to connect immediately to the database on the running server.

If this running server has more than one database loaded on it, if it is not yet running, or if it is running on another machine, you need to provide more detailed information in the Connect dialog so that Interactive SQL connects to the right database.

This section describes how to access the Connect dialog in Interactive SQL.

Note: To avoid ambiguity, specify connection parameters for Interactive SQL instead of relying on defaults. You can specify connection parameters in a command line, configuration file, or an initialization file such as .odbc.ini or odbc.ini.

If more than one database is started on a server, for example, you should specify the database name. In a network with subnets, specify the CommLinks parameter with protocol options including the host number.

In the .odbc.ini file, you must use the long form of each parameter. For example, use DatabaseFile instead of DBF. If your parameters are incomplete or incorrect, you may see an error such as

Database name required to start engine