Database options control many aspects of database behavior including compatibility, error handling, and concurrency.
For example, you can use database options for the purposes such as:
Compatibility – lets you control how much like Adaptive Server Enterprise your Sybase IQ database operates, and whether SQL that does not conform to SQL92 generates errors.
Error handling – lets you control what happens when errors, such as dividing by zero or overflow errors, occur.
Concurrency and transactions – lets you control the degree of concurrency and details of COMMIT behavior using options.
You set options with the SET OPTION statement, which has this general syntax:
SET [ EXISTING ] [ TEMPORARY ] OPTION ... [ userid. | PUBLIC. ]option-name = [ option-value ]
Specify a user ID or group name to set the option only for that user or group. Every user belongs to the PUBLIC group. If no user ID or group is specified, the option change is applied to the currently logged on user ID that issued the SET OPTION statement.
For example, this statement applies a change to the PUBLIC user ID, a user group to which all users belong:
SET OPTION Public.login_mode = standard
When you set an option without issuing the TEMPORARY keyword, the new option value is permanent for the user or group who issued the statement.
See Scope and Duration of Database Options, Temporary Options, and SET OPTION Statement for more information on temporary versus permanent option values.
The maximum length of option-value, when set to a string, is 127 bytes.