Conventions

Many examples of SQL statements, DB2 commands, and operating system commands are included throughout the book. SQL keywords are written in uppercase bold. For example: Use the SELECT statement to retrieve data from a DB2 database.

DB2 commands are shown in lowercase bold. For example: The list applications command lists the applications connected to your databases.

You can issue many DB2 UDB commands from the Command Line Processor (CLP) utility, which accepts the commands in both uppercase and lowercase. In the UNIX operating systems, program names are case-sensitive, so be careful to enter the program name using the proper case. For example, on UNIX, db2 must be entered in lowercase. (See Appendix B, Use of Uppercase Versus Lowercase in DB2, for a detailed discussion of this.)

Database object names used in our examples are shown in italics. For example: The country table has five columns.

Italics are also used for variable names in the syntax of a command or statement. If the variable name has more than one word, it is joined with an underscore. For example: CREATE SEQUENCE sequence_name

Where a concept of a function is new in DB2 Version 8.2, we signify this with an icon as follows.

Note that the DB2 UDB Version 8.1 Certification Exams do not cover Version 8.2 material.