NAME

       mdb-sql - SQL interface to MDB Tools

SYNOPSIS

       mdb-sql [-HFp] [-d delimiter] [-i file] [-o file] [database]

DESCRIPTION

       mdb-sql is a utility program distributed with MDB Tools.

       mdb-sql allows querying of an MDB database using a limited SQL subset language.

OPTIONS

       -H     Supress header row.

       -F     Supress footer row.

       -p     Turn  off  pretty printing. By default results are printed in an ascii table format
              which looks nice but is not conducive to manipulating the output with  unix  tools.
              This option prints output plainly in a tab separated format.

       -d     Specify an alternative column delimiter. If no delimiter is specified, columns will
              be delimited by a tab character if pretty printing (-p) is turned  off.  If  pretty
              printing is enabled this option is meaningless.

       -i     Specify  an  input  file. This option allows an input file containing the SQL to be
              passed to mdb-sql.  See Notes.

       -o     Specify an output file. This option allows the name of an output file  to  be  used
              instead of stdout.

COMMANDS

       mdb-sql in interactive mode takes some special commands.

       connect to <database>
              If  no  database was specified on the command line this command is necessary before
              any querys are issued. It also allows the switching of databases once in the tool.

       disconnect
              Will disconnect from the current database.

       go     Each batch is sent to the parser using the 'go' command.

       reset A batch can be cleared using the 'reset' command.

       list tables
              The list tables command will display a list of available tables in  this  database,
              similar to the mdb-tables utility on the command line.

       describe table <table>
              Will display the column information for the specified table.

       quit   Will exit the tool.

SQL LANGUAGE

       The currently implemented SQL subset is quite small, supporting only single table queries,
       no aggregates, and limited support for WHERE clauses. Here is  a  brief  synopsis  of  the
       supported language.

       select:
              SELECT [* | <column list>] FROM <table> WHERE <where clause>

       column list:
              <column> [, <column list>]

       where clause:
              <column> <operator> <literal> [AND <where clause>]

       operator:
              =, =>, =<, <>, like, <, >

       literal:
              integers, floating point numbers, or string literal in single quotes

NOTES

       When  passing  a  file  (-i)  or piping output to mdb-sql the final 'go' is optional. This
       allow constructs like

       echo "Select * from Table1" | mdb-sql mydb.mdb

       to work correctly.

       The -i command can be passed the string 'stdin' to test entering text as if using a pipe.

ENVIRONMENT

       MDB_JET3_CHARSET
              Defines the charset of the input JET3 (access 97)  file.  Default  is  CP1252.  See
              iconv(1).

       MDBICONV
              Defines the output charset. Default is UTF-8. mdbtools must have been compiled with
              iconv.

       MDBOPTS
              semi-column separated list of options:

              •  use_index

              •  no_memo

              •  debug_like

              •  debug_write

              •  debug_usage

              •  debug_ole

              •  debug_row

              •  debug_props

              •  debug_all is a shortcut for all debug_* options

HISTORY

       mdb-sql first appeared in MDB Tools 0.3.

SEE ALSO

       gmdb2(1) mdb-export(1) mdb-hexdump(1) mdb-prop(1)  mdb-ver(1)  mdb-array(1)  mdb-header(1)
       mdb-parsecsv(1) mdb-schema(1) mdb-tables(1) isql(1)

AUTHORS

       The mdb-sql utility was written by Brian Bruns.

BUGS

       The supported SQL syntax is a very limited subset and deficient in several ways.