FreeTDS Development Group

["Lowden, James K" <LowdenJK AT bernstein.com>]

> From: Andrew Pimlott [mailto:andrew AT pimlott.net]
> Sent: July 3, 2003 9:03 AM
> 
> On Thu, Jul 03, 2003 at 08:30:00AM +0200, Michael Peppler wrote:
> > 
> > Interesting - maybe the MSSQL query tool silently removes the
> > semi-colon.
> 
> I doubt it's just that:  The line above is part of a long statement,
> so the query tool would have to be parsing the whole statement.
> Plus, I found other discrepancies (since sending the message), for
> example with sqsh I get complaints of errors that the MSSQL tool
> ignores, like non-existent columns (in this respect, sqsh works
> better!).  Also, I had to change "GO" to "go" in one place.  It
> really seems like I'm using a whole (but subtly) different mode.

The differences you're describing are in the application, not the protocol.
If you are using TDS 7.0 with sqsh, then the server really can't distinguish
between sqsh and any Microsoft ODBC tool.  

For instance, GO/go isn't sent to the server; it's processed by the tool and
serves as a terminator, separating batches of SQL:  

        $ isql -E -c foo 
        1> select 1; select 2
        2> go
        3> foo

         -----------
                   1

        (1 row affected)
         go
         -----------
                   2

        (1 row affected)

Note Microsoft's isql uses TDS 4.2.  It passes the semicolon to the server
(which ignores it), passes "go" as a column label for the second select
statement, and sends the batch on "foo".  

How do I know the semicolon is passed?  The same query works with tsql!  

> > and sqsh will often interpret the
> > ; as meaning "go" - i.e. send the current SQL batch to the server).
> 
> You're right that removing the semicolon makes everyone happy.

"man sqsh" is your friend here.  sqsh has quite a lot of built-in semicolon
interpretation.  

I think the moral of the story is that different tools are different.  We
quite often get questions here along the lines of "it works in [tool] but
not in FreeTDS".  Many times it turns out to be a flaw in FreeTDS, and
sometimes it's just an idiosyncrasy of [tool].  ;-)

--jkl
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