Interactive SQL behavior changes and deprecated features

Graphical plans are now viewable in a Plan Viewer You now view graphical plans for SQL Anywhere databases in a separate, resizable window called the Plan Viewer, in Interactive SQL. This change makes it easier to view and compare plans because you can now open multiple Plan Viewer windows at the same time. To access the Plan Viewer, select Tools » Plan Viewer. Text plans for UltraLite databases are also displayed in the Plan Viewer. See Using the Plan Viewer to view graphical plans.

In addition the Interactive SQL option isql_plan option is unsupported.

Support for viewing long and short plans has been removed You can no longer view text plans for SQL Anywhere databases in Interactive SQL. However, you can still retrieve them using the EXPLANATION and PLAN functions. You can still view text plans for UltraLite databases using the Plan Viewer in Interactive SQL.

Printing execution plans and result sets Now you can print the contents of the SQL Statements pane and the result sets by pressing Ctrl+P or by choosing Print from the File menu. Previously you could only print the contents of the SQL Statements pane. You can print in the Plan Viewer by pressing the Print button. See Printing SQL statements, execution plans, and result sets.

Line numbers added to the SQL Statements pane Line numbers are now visible on the left side of the SQL Statements pane. These line numbers can help you identify the location of syntax errors.

Enhancement to the Execute SQL Statements toolbar button Previously, on the Interactive SQL toolbar, the Execute SQL Statements button executed all SQL statements. Now you can specify whether to execute all statements, or to execute only the selected statements when the button is clicked.

To set the behavior of the Execute SQL Statements button, from the Tools menu, choose Options » Toolbar. See Executing SQL statements from Interactive SQL.

Enhancement to executing batch statements

Interactive SQL provides improved feedback when executing batches of statements. When executing SQL statements from the SQL Statements pane, the statement being executed is now selected and scrolled into view. When executing script files via File » Run Script, a status window appears which shows the progress through the script. See Executing multiple SQL statements.

Enhancements to the Results pane

In the Results pane, you can now select all the results by pressing Ctrl+A. You can also select the entire result set, not just the currently fetched results. When the Results pane does not contain the entire result set, you are prompted to fetch the remaining results. Otherwise, only the currently fetched results are selected.
Now when you copy cells from the Results tab the copied data is formatted based on the following Interactive SQL options: isql_field_separator, isql_quote, and isql_escape_character. You can also copy to the clipboard selected values, rows, and columns from the result set. See Copying columns, rows, and cells from an Interactive SQL result set.
Now when you click a column-header in the Results tab, the results are sorted by that column. When the Results pane does not contain the entire result set, you are prompted to fetch the remaining results. Otherwise, only the currently fetched results are sorted.
Now you can generate and copy to the clipboard INSERT, DELETE, and UPDATE statements that are based on selected rows in the result set. See Generating SQL statements from result sets.
The Results pane in Interactive SQL has been enhanced to include the following features, available from the right-click menu:
- Copy » Copy Cell Copies the contents of the selected cell.
- Copy » Copy Column Copies cell values from the column the selected cell.
- Generate » INSERT Statement Generates an INSERT statement for each selected row and copies them to the clipboard.
- Generate » DELETE Statement Generates a DELETE statement for each selected row and copies them to the clipboard.
- Generate » UPDATE Statement Generates an UPDATE statement for each selected row and copies them to the clipboard. The generated statements set the column values to their current values. Consequently, executing the statements would not actually change the column values. This functionality can be useful for providing a template UPDATE statement which you could edit before executing it.
See Copying columns, rows, and cells from an Interactive SQL result set and Generating SQL statements from result sets.

Enhancements to Interactive SQL statements

DESCRIBE statement enhancements The DESCRIBE statement can now return information about the database or database server that is connected to Interactive SQL. See DESCRIBE statement [Interactive SQL].
INPUT and READ statement enhancements The INPUT and READ statements now attempt to resolve relative paths in two ways. See INPUT statement [Interactive SQL] and READ statement [Interactive SQL].
Enhancements to the INPUT and OUTPUT statements
- New support for importing from, and exporting to, ODBC sources You can now specify an ODBC data source when importing into, and exporting from, the database using the INPUT and OUTPUT statements. To do so, use the new USING clause. See INPUT statement [Interactive SQL] and OUTPUT statement [Interactive SQL].
  You can also specify an ODBC data source when using the Import Wizard and the Export Wizard. See Import data with the Import Wizard and Export data with the Export Wizard.
- New support for byte order mark (BOM) You can now control whether a byte order mark (BOM) in data is processed. To do so, use the new BYTE ORDER MARK clause. See INPUT statement [Interactive SQL] and OUTPUT statement [Interactive SQL].
- Supported formats for the INPUT statement have changed The INPUT statement no longer supports the dBase, Lotus, Excel, and FoxPro file formats. TEXT and FIXED are still supported. If you want to continue to use these file formats, you will have to do so via an ODBC driver. See INPUT statement [Interactive SQL].
- Supported formats for the OUTPUT statement have changed The OUTPUT statement no longer supports the dBase, Lotus, Excel, and FoxPro file formats. TEXT, FIXED, HTML, SQL, and XML are still supported. See OUTPUT statement [Interactive SQL].
- ASCII format is renamed TEXT for INPUT and OUTPUT statements INPUT and OUTPUT statements now use TEXT. Use of ASCII is still supported; however, for backward compatibility.

Changes to the Import Wizard and the Export Wizard When the Import Wizard or the Export Wizard finishes, the SQL statement generated by the wizard is stored in the command history. To view the generated SQL Statement, choose SQL » History.

Interactive SQL options

isql_allow_read_client_file and isql_allow_write_client_file These two options describe how Interactive SQL responds to requests to read and write client-side files. See isql_allow_read_client_file option [Interactive SQL] and isql_allow_write_client_file option [Interactive SQL].
-codepage option deprecated If you want Interactive SQL to read a file with a specific code page, use the ENCODING clause of the INPUT, OUTPUT, or READ statement. See:
isql_plan option unsupported The Interactive SQL option isql_plan option is no longer supported. Attempts to set it are silently ignored for backward compatibility. See Using the Plan Viewer to view graphical plans.
SET OPTION statement PUBLIC keyword removed Support for the PUBLIC keyword is removed for setting Interactive SQL options using the SET OPTION statement. See Interactive SQL options.

Changes to the Interactive SQL launcher The executable for the Windows version of the Interactive SQL launcher has changed from dbisqlg.exe to dbisql.exe.

The executable for the command-line version of the Interactive SQL launcher changed from dbisql.exe to dbsql.com. Batch scripts should call dbisql or dbisql.com, not dbisql.exe.