All you need to do is download the SQL Access files, free to any licensed OpenEdge user. You can access the OpenEdge SQL engine with any language or tool that supports ODBC or JDBC.

SQL is locked down by default except for the owner of the data, and you must specifically GRANT privileges to other users. You must specifically revoke access privileges.

The OpenEdge side assumes that security is handled by the application, and all table data is PUBLIC by default. SQL and ABL approach security from completely opposite directions.

However, when you access that same field using the SQL engine, the SQL client relies on _field._width (the SQL width) to determine the width of the character field. This is normal and very common practice within 4GL applications. Example: a character field defined as “x(30)” could easily be “overstuffed” with a string 2,000 characters long. A field format is a default display suggestion used when the coder provides no other input or display format – it is not a constraint. Character FieldsĪnother difference is that with the OpenEdge ABL, all character data is variable width. Watch out, especially if you start modifying data from the SQL side. TriggersĤGL trigger procedures are executed by the OpenEdge AVM, and are completely ignored by SQL connections. SQL, on the other hand, relies on statistics that are calculated based on the data stored in the table. You can compile against an empty table or a 100 GB table and the same index will be selected. To put it another way: the ABL will always select the same indexes regardless of the content of the table. SQL is a cost-based optimizer, meaning that it uses table and index statistics to select the most optimal path to the requested data. The ABL is a rules-based optimizer, meaning that it analyzes the fields in the various indexes when evaluating a where clause and selecting one or more indexes to access the data. The most glaring difference between the two query languages is how they optimize queries. Key Differencesīelow are the top four differences between SQL and the ABL. Both interact with the OpenEdge database differently, and while both access the same table and index data, there is very little overlap in their behaviour.

The OpenEdge database supports two distinctly different query languages: the OpenEdge ABL (4GL) and SQL-92. This post is part of the “New DBA Series.” Check /for more posts in the series and other interesting DBA blog posts. OpenEdge Databases & SQL Thinking about enabling SQL access to your OpenEdge database? Read this.

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