Any Dummy Table In Informix?

[James]

Hi,

I would like to use the SQL function for some manipulation but every
SQL needs a table. Therefore a dummy table with 1 row of record is
needed. For example, if I would to get the system date through SQL -
select today from <dummy table>

We can surely create the dummy table but I'm just wondering whether
Informix does have a special table for this purpose. In Oracle, there
is a table called dual for this purpose.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

[Obnoxio The Clown]

Generally I use (and I think most people do)

"SELECT TODAY FROM systables WHERE tabid = 1;"

[Tsutomu Ogiwara]

Hi James.

AFAIK, Informix does not have dummy table like dual.
So you use the following SQL.

select xxx from systables where tabid=1;

Regards.

--
Tsutomu Ogiwara from Tokyo Japan.
ICQ#:168106592

>From: ehc...@hotmail.com (James)
>Reply-To: ehc...@hotmail.com (James)
>To: inform...@iiug.org
>Subject: Any Dummy Table In Informix?
>Date: 31 Oct 2002 23:05:29 -0800
>
>Hi,
>
>I would like to use the SQL function for some manipulation but every
>SQL needs a table. Therefore a dummy table with 1 row of record is
>needed. For example, if I would to get the system date through SQL -
>select today from <dummy table>
>
>We can surely create the dummy table but I'm just wondering whether
>Informix does have a special table for this purpose. In Oracle, there
>is a table called dual for this purpose.
>

>Any ideas?
>
>Thanks in advance.

_________________________________________________________________
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[Colin Bull]

James asked -

> Hi,
>
> I would like to use the SQL function for some manipulation but every
> SQL needs a table. Therefore a dummy table with 1 row of record is
> needed. For example, if I would to get the system date through SQL -
> select today from <dummy table>
>
> We can surely create the dummy table but I'm just wondering whether
> Informix does have a special table for this purpose. In Oracle, there
> is a table called dual for this purpose.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>

It is normally done with a system table, how about systables ?

Colin Bull
c.b...@VideoNetworks.com

[Malcolm Weallans]

I guess we could even produce a view and call it dual

CREATE VEW dual AS SELECT * FROM systables WHERE tabid=1

Then we could do SELECT TODAY FROM dual

Malcolm

-----Original Message-----
From: Obnoxio The Clown [mailto:obn...@hotmail.com]
Sent: 01 November 2002 08:03
To: inform...@iiug.org
Subject: Re: Any Dummy Table In Informix?

James wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I would like to use the SQL function for some manipulation but every
> SQL needs a table. Therefore a dummy table with 1 row of record is
> needed. For example, if I would to get the system date through SQL -
> select today from <dummy table>
>
> We can surely create the dummy table but I'm just wondering whether
> Informix does have a special table for this purpose. In Oracle, there
> is a table called dual for this purpose.

Generally I use (and I think most people do)

"SELECT TODAY FROM systables WHERE tabid = 1;"

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[Pavel Hruska]

Hi

I use objected-relational properties of IDS

SELECT TODAY FROM TABLE(SET{1})

Pavel

"James" <ehc...@hotmail.com> píse v diskusním príspevku
news:46fb4b22.02103...@posting.google.com...

[Jonathan Leffler]

Pavel Hruska wrote:
> I use objected-relational properties of IDS
>
> SELECT TODAY FROM TABLE(SET{1})

I use a real table:

CREATE TABLE dual (value INTEGER NOT NULL CHECK (value = 0) UNIQUE);
INSERT INTO dual VALUES(0);
REVOKE ALL ON dual FROM PUBLIC;
GRANT SELECT ON dual TO PUBLIC;

> "James" <ehc...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>I would like to use the SQL function for some manipulation but every
>>SQL needs a table. Therefore a dummy table with 1 row of record is
>>needed. For example, if I would to get the system date through SQL -
>>select today from <dummy table>
>>
>>We can surely create the dummy table but I'm just wondering whether
>>Informix does have a special table for this purpose. In Oracle, there
>>is a table called dual for this purpose.

--
Jonathan Leffler #include <disclaimer.h>
Email: jlef...@earthlink.net, jlef...@us.ibm.com
Guardian of DBD::Informix 1.00.PC2 -- http://dbi.perl.org/

[sergio...@gmail.com]

Starting IDS 11.70 there is a new sysdual table in sysmaster database
you can query sysdual as oracle's dual table.

select * from sysmaster:sysdual

it will return

X

I hope this helps you