Subj : Re: Do all programming languages use files?
To   : comp.programming
From : Ed Prochak
Date : Mon Sep 12 2005 06:42 am


Chris Sonnack wrote:
> Ed Prochak writes:
>
> >>> So on the topic, SQL I'd say does not support files. (gets back
> >>> to the "what is a file?" question, doesn't it.)
> >>
> >> Er, files are things in which you store data. QED? :-)

If a file is persistant linear storage, then SQL doen't support files.
If a file is simply persistant storage (ie the data does not have a
"position"), then maybe the TABLES can be considered files. You seem to
keep to the first definition. That's good.

> >
> > So you define files as any persistant mass storage?
>
> It's not necessary to go there to answer the question, because some
> versions of SQL do support explicit files as output sinks.  For e.g.
> you can do something like this:
>
> 	select *
> 	from my_table
> 	output to c:\temp\sql.out

That is a proprietary extension and NOT part of the SQL language
itself. (eg, I happen to use UNIFY in one system and it uses "INTO"
instead of "OUTPUT TO") So the LANGUAGE doesn't support files, even if
your vendor's IMPLEMENTATION does.

So I still contend the answer to the topic question is NO.

.