Programming Interfaces Guide

This section lists the typographic and graphical conventions used in this documentation.

The following conventions are used in the SQL syntax descriptions:

Keywords
All SQL keywords are shown in UPPER CASE. However, SQL keywords are case insensitive, so you can enter keywords in any case you wish; SELECT is the same as Select which is the same as select.
Placeholders
Items that must be replaced with appropriate identifiers or expressions are shown in italics .
Continuation
Lines beginning with ... are a continuation of the statements from the previous line.
Repeating items
Lists of repeating items are shown with an element of the list followed by an ellipsis (three dots). One or more list elements are allowed. If more than one is specified, they must be separated by commas.
Optional portions
Optional portions of a statement are enclosed by square brackets. For example, ...
```
RELEASE SAVEPOINT [ savepoint-name ] 
```
... indicates that the savepoint-name is optional. The square brackets should not be typed.
Options
When none or only one of a list of items must be chosen, the items are separated by vertical bars and the list enclosed in square brackets.

For example, ...
```
[ ASC | DESC ]
```
... indicates that you can choose one of ASC, DESC, or neither. The square brackets should not be typed.
Alternatives
When precisely one of the options must be chosen, the alternatives are enclosed in curly braces. For example ...
```
QUOTES { ON | OFF }
```
... indicates that exactly one of ON or OFF must be provided. The braces should not be typed.

In addition to the syntax conventions, the documentation uses the following typographic conventions:

Item	Description
Code	SQL and program code is displayed in a mono-spaced (fixed-width) font
User entry	Text entered by the user is displayed in a bold sans serif typeface
new term	New terms introduced in the text are displayed in a bold serif typeface
emphasis	Emphasized words are displayed in italic
file names	File names are shown in italics.
database objects	Names of database objects, such as tables and procedures, are shown in bold.

The following icons are used in this documentation:

Icon	Meaning
	A client application.
	A database server, such as Sybase Adaptive Server Anywhere or Adaptive Server Enterprise.
	An Adaptive Server Anywhere database server.
	A SQL Remote Message Agent
	A Sybase Replication Server.
	A Replication Agent. A replication agent is required for a database to act as a primary data site in Sybase Replication Server installations.

The following terms are used throughout the manual:

Installation directory
The directory into which you install Adaptive Server Anywhere.
Executable directory
The executables and other files for each operating system are held in an executable subdirectory of the installation directory. This subdirectory has the following name:
- Windows NT and Windows 95
  win32
- UNIX
  bin
- Windows 3.x
  win
- OS/2
  os2
- Novell NetWare
  nlm


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