Differences from Other SQL Dialects

Sybase IQ conforms to the ANSI SQL89 standard, but has many additional features that are defined in the IBM DB2 and SAA specifications, as well as in the ANSI SQL92 standard.

Certain Sybase IQ features are not found in many other SQL implementations.

• Dates
  Sybase IQ has date, time, and timestamp types that include year, month, day, hour, minutes, seconds, and fraction of a second. For insertions or updates to date fields, or comparisons with date fields, a free-format date is supported.
• Integrity
  Sybase IQ supports both entity and referential integrity.
• Joins
  Sybase IQ allows automatic joins between tables.
• Updates
  Sybase IQ allows more than one table to be referenced by UPDATE.
• Altering Tables
  ALTER TABLE has been extended.
• Subqueries Not Always Allowed
  Unlike SQL Anywhere, Sybase IQ does not allow subqueries to appear wherever expressions are allowed.
• Additional Functions
  Sybase IQ supports several functions not in the ANSI SQL definition.
• Cursors
  When using Embedded SQL, cursor positions can be moved arbitrarily on the FETCH statement. Cursors can be moved forward or backward relative to the current position or a given number of records from the beginning or end of the cursor.