Informix for beginner

Question

What is Informix? I understand that it is a DBMS, how well it is comparing to SQL Server in terms of learning difficulties and syntax?

How to start learning Informix? And may I know the "hello world" tutorial?

Answer 1

If you know SQL you could work with Informix on a basic level with significant ease (If you're a DBA that's another matter completely).

To me the biggest issue is lack of a decent development IDE - you could run basic queries from QuantumDB Eclipse plugin but you could not work with stored procedures (I assume it's the issue with the IBM JDBC drivers). The Unix command-line interface seems to be the easiest way to do anything properly there.

There are some tricks (like knowing that the order of the joins DOES matter) but I believe you'll just pick those up on the way.

SELECT
  table1_alias.column1 column1_alias, 
  table2_alias.column2 column2_alias 
FROM
  table1 table1_alias,
  table2 table2_alias
WHERE
  table1_alias.column1 = table2_alias.column2
AND
  table1_alias.column3 != 'value' 
AND
 (char_length(table1_alias.column3) > 3
AND
 table1_alias.column3 IS LIKE 'another_value%'

Answer 2

IBM Informix Dynamic Server (IDS, colloquially Informix, though there are many other products that are part of the Informix family of products) is an excellent DBMS for many purposes. It has excellent data management capabilities, outstanding data replication, and is reliable. The first Informix SQL-based DBMS was released in 1985, so it also has longevity and pedigree similar to Oracle, DB2, Ingres, Sybase. As with all the main DBMS (including MS SQL Server), it pre-dates the SQL standard, so there are parts of it that do not conform to the SQL standard, but it generally does a reasonable job. It runs on Unix and derivatives (Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, Linux and MacOS X) as well as on Windows (XP, Vista, etc).

The latest version of IDS is 11.50 (in full, 11.50.FC2 or 11.50.UC2). Other versions you may encounter include 7.31, 9.40, 10.00 or 11.10. Informix also provides Informix Standard Engine (Informix SE), current version 7.25, and Informix OnLine (a pre-cursor to IDS), current version 5.20. The main source of client tools is the Client SDK, current version 3.50. That includes ESQL/C, ODBC, JDBC, .NET and various other drivers. Informix SQL (a product, distinct from the Informix dialect of SQL embedded in IDS) and Informix 4GL are also available.

You can use DBI and DBD::Informix with Perl. There is a PDO_INFORMIX and a PDO_IBM driver for PHP. There is a driver for Python. There is a driver for Ruby. There is an ancient driver for (ancient) Tcl/Tk. You can find SQLCMD (pre-dating the MS SQL Server program of the same name by a good decade and a bit) at the IIUG web-site mentioned below. There is an open source re-implementation of I4GL available as Aubit4GL. You can also find I4GL derivatives at 4Js and at Querix. You can find Server Studio Java Edition (SSJE) at www.serverstudio.com.

The canonical web site is www.ibm.com/software/data/informix, and www.informix.com also takes you there (you typically end up with www-01.ibm.com in the URL). You can also find a lot of information at the International Informix Users Group web site www.iiug.org. Membership is free. The IIUG provides a number of mailing lists, and includes a gateway between the [email protected] list and the comp.databases.informix news group.

You can obtain trial versions of the software from both IBM and the IIUG.

Full disclosure: I have worked with Informix products since 1986 and currently work for IBM on IDS.