Neoview Database Administrator's Guide (R2.3)

B Special Neoview Features—Enabled Upon Request
Mode_Special_2
NOTE: To enable these features, you must request access from your HP account representative.
Mode_special_2 is a new read only default that helps you transition from your current platform
to the Neoview platform.
HP recommends that you use Neoview syntax and semantics on the Neoview platform to avoid
getting errors. When you move from your current platform to Neoview, you might find the
Neoview syntax equivalent to your previous DBMS and use that instead. However, there are
cases when the syntax you use might be accepted by Neoview, but, because of differences between
the DBMS you are migrating from and Neoview, the semantics you get might not be the same.
In that case, you will not get an error but will get results different from what you are accustomed
to. The problem is that you might not know that the results are different. For example, you might
get different results for a case-insensitive predicate and not know that you are not getting matches
on rows you would otherwise see. You might also be unaware of precision and rounding
differences.
To ease your transition to Neoview, HP packages a set of these semantic differences in one toggle
called mode_special_2. The mode_special_2 toggle does not cover only semantic behavior. One
exception is the FORMAT functions. FORMAT functions are supported in this mode to help you
move your current applications to Neoview.
You should review the semantics in mode_special_2, which are described in “Features Supported
in Mode_Special_2” (page 121), and see if you need them. If you do, you can enable them either
for migration or for a longer period of time.
HP recommends that you enable the mode_special_2 semantics for migration only. During
migration to the Neoview platform, you can use the semantics to compare results between
systems and to ensure that the migration has been successful. After successfully migrating to
the Neoview platform, you should train users to use only the Neoview semantics.
You might decide for business reasons that you would like to keep mode_special_2 enabled for
a longer period of time. Be aware that when you decide to stop using mode_special_2, you could
encounter problems. For example, in mode_special_2, tables are automatically created with
columns as case-insensitive if you do not specify case-insensitivity. When mode_special_2 is
disabled, you get case-sensitive columns if you do not specify case-sensitivity. To avoid unpleasant
surprises when disabling mode_special_2, HP recommends that you always explicitly specify
CASESPECIFIC or NOT CASESPECIFIC columns.
Features Supported in Mode_Special_2
• NOT CASESPECIFIC
By default, all columns and literals are set to NOT CASESPECIFIC. If you are using this
special mode, you must create and access tables in the same mode. Otherwise, you could
encounter data corruption or runtime errors.
• Output Date Formats
The FORMAT clause supports these formats for retrieving data:
YYYY-MM-DD
MM/DD/YYYY
YY/MM/DD
YYYY/MM/DD
YYYYMMDD
DD.MM.YYYY
DD-MMM-YYYY
Mode_Special_2 121