What's New in SQL Anywhere Studio
  What's New in Version 8.0.1
    New features in version 8.0.1

Adaptive Server Anywhere new features

This section introduces the new features in Adaptive Server Anywhere version 8.0.1. It provides an exhaustive listing of major and minor new features, with cross references to locations where each feature is discussed in detail.

• Specify space to be reserved in table pages    You can reduce table fragmentation by specifying the percentage of free space that should be reserved in table pages.

  For more information, see Table fragmentation and ALTER TABLE statement.

To specify the percentage of space to be allocated on databases created before this release, you must upgrade the database file format by unloading and reloading the database.

• New system tables    Two new system tables, SYSATTRIBUTE and SYSATTRIBUTENAME, have been added.

  For more information, see SYSATTRIBUTE system table and SYSATTRIBUTENAME system table.

• sa_disk_free_space system procedure    This procedure allows you to determine the space available for your dbspaces, temporary file, transaction log, and transaction log mirror.

  For more information, see sa_disk_free_space system procedure.

• sa_flush_statistics system procedure    Database administrators can use this procedure to ensure that cost model statistics that exist only in the database server cache are flushed out.

  For more information, see sa_flush_statistics system procedure.

• New ways to obtain server message window contents    There is a new system procedure and three new properties that return information from the server window.

  For more information, see sa_get_server_messages system procedure; and MessageText, MessageTime, and MessageWindowSize in Server-level properties.

• Determine ANSI equivalency of non-ANSI statements    The REWRITE function accepts a new argument, ANSI, which causes the function to return the ANSI equivalent of any SELECT, UPDATE, or DELETE statement.

  For more information, see REWRITE function [Miscellaneous].

• Variable assignment allowed in UPDATE statement    The SET clause of the UPDATE statement can now be used to assign a value to a variable, in addition to updating the table. This feature is compatible with Adaptive Server Enterprise.

  For more information, see UPDATE statement.

• Alternative to autoincrement    The get_identity function is provided as an alternative for allocating identity values to autoincrement columns.

  For more information, see GET_IDENTITY function [Miscellaneous].

• Square brackets can delimit identifiers    You can use square brackets to delimit identifiers. Square brackets can always be used, regardless of the setting of the QUOTED_IDENTIFIER option.

  For more information, see Identifiers.

• Specify isolation level in FROM clause    You can use the WITH table-hint argument to specify a locking method for a particular table or view for a particular SELECT, UPDATE, or DELETE statement.

  For more information, see FROM clause.

• Data Migration wizard    The Data Migration wizard allows you to migrate remote tables to an Adaptive Server Anywhere database from Sybase Central.

  You cannot migrate foreign keys if the target database is version 8.0.0 or earlier. To migrate foreign keys, you must upgrade the target database's file format by unloading and reloading the database.

  For more information, see Migrating databases to Adaptive Server Anywhere.

• Unload a version 5.x or 6.x database from Sybase Central    Sybase Central now allows you to connect to a version 5.x of 6.x database in order to upgrade the database file format using the Unload Database wizard. To do this, you must run the database on a version 8.0.0 or later server.

  For more information, see Upgrading Adaptive Server Anywhere.

• Back up and shut down your database from the Upgrade Database wizard    You can now back up your database files, including the main database file, the transaction log, and dbspaces from the Sybase Central Upgrade Database wizard. The wizard also allows you to shut down your database when the upgrade is complete.

  For more information, see Upgrading a database.

• sa_migrate enhancement    The sa_migrate procedure has an optional argument, migrate_fkeys that allows you to specify whether or not you want to migrate foreign key mappings when you migrate tables from a remote database. In previous releases, foreign key mappings were always migrated when you used the sa_migrate procedure.

  For more information, see sa_migrate system procedure.

  To use this feature on databases created before this release, you must upgrade the database file format by unloading and reloading the database.

• New SORT_COLLATION database option    The SORT_COLLATION database option allows implicit use of the SORTKEY function on ORDER BY expressions. When the value of this option is set to a valid collation name or collation ID, any string expression in the ORDER BY clause is treated as if the SORTKEY function had been invoked.

  For more information, see SORT_COLLATION option [database].

• Use an IP address/port to connect to a server    You can use the VerifyServerName=NO connection parameter to skip the verification of the server name and allow Adaptive Server Anywhere clients to connect to an Adaptive Server Anywhere server if they know only an IP address/port. The VerifyServerName parameter is only used if DoBroadcast=NONE is specified.

  For more information, see VerifyServerName communication parameter [VERIFY] .

• New LocalOnly connection parameter controls broadcasts     You can use the LocalOnly connection parameter to connect only to a server on the local machine, if one exists. Setting LocalOnly=YES uses the regular broadcast mechanism, except that broadcast responses from servers on other machines are ignored.

  For more information, see LocalOnly communication parameter [LOCAL].

• Specify how much of the cache is used for pinning cursors     You can use the PINNED_CURSOR_PERCENT_OF_CACHE option to adjust the amount of cache that can be used for pinning cursors. Lowering the limit can improve performance in low memory environments.

  For more information, see PINNED_CURSOR_PERCENT_OF_CACHE option [database].

• Monitor database file and log file fragmentation     You can use the DBFileFragments and LogFileFragments database properties to choose monitor file fragmentation. Fragmentation of the transaction log file is usually not a significant concern; however, fragmentation of the database file can be a cause of reduced performance and may warrant use of a disk defragmentation utility.

  For more information, see Database-level properties.

• New connection properties.     Two new connection properties have been added. LivenessTimeout returns the liveness timeout of the connection, and IdleTimeout returns the idle timeout of the connection.

  For more information, see Connection-level properties.

• New server properties     The new IdleTimeout server property returns the default idle timeout value.

  For more information, see Server-level properties.

• Non-deterministic functions    Functions that modify underlying data, or that rely on underlying data that may change during the course of query execution, can be declared NOT DETERMINISTIC. Functions that are declared this way are re-evaluated each time they are called during query execution. Otherwise, the function value is cached and re-used for better performance.

  For more information, see CREATE FUNCTION statement.

• Ensure all transactions in backup are complete    By default, the BACKUP statement renames or truncates the transaction log without waiting for open transactions to complete. You can now ensure that all transactions contained in a backup are complete by specifying a WAIT AFTER END clause.

  For more information, see BACKUP statement