SQL and Access Paths

DB2 offers you a level of abstraction from the data because you do not have to know the following information:

Where the data physically exists
Where the data sets are
Which is the access method for the data
What index to use

All that you should know is the name of the table and the columns you are interested in. You can quickly build applications that access data using standardized language that is independent of any access method or platform. This design enables development of applications, portability across platforms, and all of the power and flexibility that comes with a relational or object-relational design.