Coding Considerations › Definitions

Definitions

Most of the definitions and entities used in this guide are intuitively understood and generally used. With the introduction of SQL procedural language support it became necessary to more formally define a number of SQL routine-like objects. The following definitions are based on the definitions used in the SQL standard.

SQL-invoked routine

Specifies a routine that is allowed to be invoked only from within SQL. An SQL-invoked routine can be defined in the SQL catalog as a procedure, function, or table procedure.

SQL-invoked procedure

Specifies an SQL-invoked routine defined as a procedure in the SQL catalog.

SQL-invoked function

Specifies an SQL-invoked routine defined as a function in the SQL catalog.

SQL routine

Specifies an SQL-invoked routine whose language attribute is SQL. Because table procedures can not be written in the SQL language, an SQL routine is necessarily defined as a procedure or a function.

SQL procedure

Specifies an SQL routine defined in the SQL catalog as a procedure with language attribute SQL.

SQL function

Specifies an SQL routine defined in the SQL catalog as a function with language attribute SQL.