DOCUMENT:Q243056  18-MAY-2000  [odbc]
TITLE   :INFO: Using SchemaName and the SchemaSeparator in ODBC
PRODUCT :Open Database Connectivity (ODBC)
PROD/VER:WINDOWS:3.0,3.5,3.51,3.6,3.7
OPER/SYS:
KEYWORDS:kbdocfix kbODBC kbODBC300 kbODBC350 kbODBC351 kbODBC360 kbGrpDSVCDB kbDSupport kbODBC37

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The information in this article applies to:

 - Microsoft Open Database Connectivity, versions 3.0, 3.5, 3.51, 3.6, 3.7 
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SUMMARY
=======

The ODBC specification defines the following attributes, which an application
can query through SQLGetInfo to get information about the Catalog names and
Schema names, in order to use the information to qualify the objects when they
are used in different types of SQL statements:

SQL_CATALOG_LOCATION
SQL_CATALOG_NAME
SQL_CATALOG_NAME_SEPARATOR
SQL_CATALOG_TERM
SQL_CATALOG_USAGE
SQL_SCHEMA_TERM
SQL_SCHEMA_USAGE

Although the documentation is clear about the usage of Catalog names, it is not
clear about how the Schema names should be used.

Given that the driver supports usage of Catalog names and the Catalog separator,
if the driver returns an empty string for SQL_SCHEMA_TERM, then an application
using the driver should qualify the tablename as follows:

   select * from catalog_name.tablename

The driver and the database backend should be responsible for making sure that
such a syntax is supported.

Any SQL92 compliant driver supports qualifying a tablename with a Schema name.
The Schema name always precedes the tablename, and the separator is always a
".".

A driver that does not support Schema names returns an empty string as the Schema
Term through SQL_SCHEMA_TERM. Also, if it exposes SQL_SCHEMA_USAGE it returns a
zero.

If the driver returns an empty string for Schema Term, then the application
should not use the schema separator (".") when constructing a qualified name
(that is, it should qualify names as: <catalog><catalog
separator><tablename>).

If the driver does support Schema names, but the application wants to qualify the
tablename with the catalog and use the default schema, then the application must
use the schema separator as well (that is, <catalog><catalog
separator>.<tablename>).

Additional query words: Catalog Separator, Schema, SQLGetInfo

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Keywords          : kbdocfix kbODBC kbODBC300 kbODBC350 kbODBC351 kbODBC360 kbGrpDSVCDB kbDSupport kbODBC370 
Technology        : kbAudDeveloper kbODBCSearch kbODBC360 kbODBC350 kbODBC351 kbODBC370 kbODBC300
Version           : WINDOWS:3.0,3.5,3.51,3.6,3.7
Hardware          : ALPHA x86
Issue type        : kbinfo

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