Sybase vb. Microsoft

[RJ5]

hello guys.

can anyone tell me the difference between a Sybase SQL and MS SQL?

thanks.

randy : )

 

[foxdev]

The spelling. The publisher. The price.

Seriously: can you be a bit more specific?

The T-SQL is very similar, but there are subtle differences that, when going from MS to Sybase, can get you (i.e.: Sybase does not have/allow: set @memvar=value; left() function; cast function). Robert Bradley
Sr. DBA, some big company
cheap prints and oil paintings:

http://www.lowcostprints.com

 

[RJ5]

oh shoot! : (

based on what you've told me, can you give me a substitute for set? left()? cast()?

thanks man.

randy : )

 

[foxdev]

Sybase requires you to use SELECT to set the value of a variable, while MS will accept either SELECT or SET. Because MS supports SET, you can do the neat-o trick of assigning incremental values to rows after the rows were created in MS, but not Sybase.

Alternative to LEFT(): SUBSTRING( , 1, )

Somewhat of an alternative to CAST: CONVERT.

BTW, those three were just some examples of the differences, not a complete list by any means. Other examples are the MONTH and REPLACE functions.

Robert Bradley
Sr. DBA, some big company
cheap prints and oil paintings:

http://www.lowcostprints.com

 

[RJ5]

Thanks Robert.

randy : )

 

[foxdev]

And then we get into UI tools: I haven't used Sybase 12.5, but for earlier versions at least the Sybase tools aren't as full-featured as the Microsoft tools such as Enterprise Manager and Query Analyzer. Robert Bradley
Sr. DBA, some big company
cheap prints and oil paintings:

http://www.lowcostprints.com

 

[dbmsguy]

couple of points to the above....

firstly, microsoft and sybase used to share the the same engine, however over the past years have started to diverger. one big difference is platform... sybase runs on microsoft or unix. a big advantage when you get into enterprise level apps.

microsoft has started to move away in things like pagesize. ms is now 8K sybase is still 2k. many more datatypes in MS than in sybase... things like DTS now exist and you can't forget that honey. can't comment on price. Paul

http://www.dbmsguy.com