ASA Getting Started
Databases and Applications
SQL and database computing
Every Adaptive Server Anywhere database contains a set of system tables. These are special tables that the system uses to manage data and the system. These tables are also sometimes called the data dictionary or the system catalog.
System tables contain information about the database. You never alter the system tables directly in the way that you can alter other tables. The system tables hold information about the tables in a database, the users of a database, the columns in each table, and so on. This information is data about data, or metadata.
For more information about the Adaptive Server Anywhere system tables, see System Tables.