Introduction to Database Options

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

Note: When you set an option to TEMPORARY without specifying a user or group, the new option value takes effect only for the currently logged on user ID that issued the statement, and only for the duration of the connection. When you set an option to TEMPORARY for the PUBLIC group, the change remains in place for as long as the database is running—when the database shuts down, TEMPORARY options for the PUBLIC group revert back to their permanent value.

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.

Note: For all database options that accept integer values, Sybase IQ truncates any decimal option-value setting to an integer value. For example, the value 3.8 is truncated to 3.

Warning! Do not change option settings while fetching rows.

Current Option Settings
You can obtain a list of option settings, or the values of individual options, using sp_iqcheckoptions, sa_conn_properties, the SET statement, Sybase Central, and the SYSOPTIONS system view.
Scope and Duration of Database Options
You can set options at three levels of scope: public, user, and temporary.
Temporary Options
Adding the TEMPORARY keyword to the SET OPTION statement changes the duration of the change.
Public Options
Changing the value of an option for the PUBLIC user ID sets the value of the option for all users who have not set their own value.
Delete an Option Setting
Omit the option-value to delete the option setting from the database.
Initial Option Settings
You can use stored procedures to configure the initial database option settings of a user.
Deprecated Database Options
See New Features Summary Sybase IQ 15.4 for information about database options deprecated in this release.

Parent topic: Database Options

Related concepts

Scope and Duration of Database Options

Temporary Options

Related reference

SET OPTION Statement