HSQLDB example source code file (sqlissues.xml)

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The HSQLDB sqlissues.xml source code

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- $Id: sqlissues.xml,v 1.19 2005/05/27 15:37:31 fredt Exp $ -->
<chapter id="sql_issues-chapter">
  <title id="sql_issues-title">SQL Issues

  <chapterinfo>
    <authorgroup>
      <author>
        <firstname>Fred

        <surname>Toussi

        <affiliation>
          <orgname>HSQLDB Development Group
        </affiliation>

        <email>ft@cluedup.com
      </author>
    </authorgroup>

    <edition>$Revision: 1.19 $

    <pubdate>$Date: 2005/05/27 15:37:31 $

    <keywordset>
      <keyword>Hsqldb

      <keyword>SQL
    </keywordset>

    <legalnotice>
      <para>Copyright 2002-2005 Fred Toussi. Permission is granted to
      distribute this document without any alteration under the terms of the
      HSQLDB license. Additional permission is granted to the HSQLDB
      Development Group to distribute this document with or without
      alterations under the terms of the HSQLDB license.</para>
    </legalnotice>
  </chapterinfo>

  <section>
    <title>Purpose

    <para>Many questions repeatedly asked in Forums and mailing lists are
    answered in this guide. If you want to use HSQLDB with your application,
    you should read this guide.</para>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>SQL Standard Support

    <para>HSQLDB 1.8.0 supports the dialect of SQL defined by SQL standards
    92, 99 and 2003. This means where a feature of the standard is supported,
    e.g. left outer join, the syntax is that specified by the standard text.
    Many features of SQL92 and 99 up to Advanced Level are supported and there
    is support for most of SQL 2003 Foundation and several optional features
    of this standard. However, certain features of the Standards are not
    supported so no claim is made for full support of any level of the
    standards.</para>

    <para>The SQL Syntax chapter of this guide  class.

    <para>HSQLDB also supports some keywords and expressions that are not part
    of the SQL standard as enhancements. Expressions such as <literal>SELECT
    TOP 5 FROM ..</literal>, SELECT LIMIT 0 10 FROM ... or
    <literal>DROP TABLE mytable IF EXISTS are among such
    constructs.</para>

    <para>All keywords, can be used for database objects if they are double
    quoted.</para>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Constraints and Indexes

    <section>
      <title>Primary Key Constraints

      <para>Before 1.7.0, a CONSTRAINT <name> PRIMARY
      KEY</literal> was translated internally to a unique index and, in
      addition, a hidden column was added to the table with an extra unique
      index. From 1.7.0 both single-column and multi-column PRIMARY KEY
      constraints are supported. They are supported by a unique index on the
      primary key column(s) specified and no extra hidden column is maintained
      for these indexes.</para>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Unique Constraints

      <para>According to the SQL standards, a unique constraint on a single
      column means no two values are equal unless one of them is NULL. This
      means you can have one or more rows where the column value is
      NULL.</para>

      <para>A unique constraint on multiple columns (c1, c2, c3, ..) means
      that no two sets of values for the columns are equal unless at lease one
      of them is NULL. Each single column taken by itself can have repeat
      values. The following example satisfies a UNIQUE constraint on the two
      columns:</para>

      <example>
        <title>Column values which satisfy a 2-column UNIQUE
        constraint</title>

        <simplelist columns="2" type="horiz">
          <member>1,

          <member>2

          <member>2,

          <member>1

          <member>2,

          <member>2

          <member>NULL,

          <member>1

          <member>NULL,

          <member>1

          <member>1,

          <member>NULL

          <member>NULL,

          <member>NULL

          <member>NULL,

          <member>NULL
        </simplelist>
      </example>

      <para>Since version 1.7.2 the behaviour of UNIQUE constraints and
      indexes with respect to NULL values has changed to conform to SQL
      standards. A row, in which the value for any of the UNIQUE constraint
      columns is NULL, can always be added to the table. So multiple rows can
      contain the same values for the UNIQUE columns if one of the values is
      NULL.</para>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Unique Indexes

      <para>In 1.8.0, user defined UNIQUE indexes can still be declared but
      they are deprecated. You should use a UNIQUE constraint instead.</para>

      <para>CONSTRAINT <name> UNIQUE always creates
      internally a unique index on the columns, as with previous versions, so
      it has exactly the same effect as the deprecated UNIQUE index
      declaration.</para>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>FOREIGN KEYS

      <para>From version 1.7.0, HSQLDB features single and multiple column
      foreign keys. A foreign key can also be specified to reference a target
      table without naming the target column(s). In this case the primary key
      column(s) of the target table is used as the referenced column(s). Each
      pair of referencing and referenced columns in any foreign key should be
      of identical type. When a foreign key is declared, a unique constraint
      (or primary key) must exist on the referenced columns in the primary key
      table. A non-unique index is automatically created on the referencing
      columns. For example:</para>

      <informalexample>
        <programlisting>
    CREATE TABLE child(c1 INTEGER, c2 VARCHAR, FOREIGN KEY (c1, c2) REFERENCES parent(p1, p2));</programlisting>
      </informalexample>

      <para>There must be a UNIQUE constraint on columns
      <literal>(p1,p2) in the table named "parent". A non-unique
      index is automatically created on columns <literal>(c1, c2) in
      the table named "child". Columns <literal>p1 and
      <literal>c1 must be of the same type (INTEGER). Columns
      <literal>p2 and c2 must be of the same type
      (VARCHAR).</para>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Indexes and Query Speed

      <para>HSQLDB does not use indexes to improve sorting of query results.
      But indexes have a crucial role in improving query speed. If no index is
      used in a query on a single table, such as a DELETE query, then all the
      rows of the table must be examined. With an index on one of the columns
      that is in the WHERE clause, it is often possible to start directly from
      the first candidate row and reduce the number of rows that are
      examined.</para>

      <para>Indexes are even more important in joins between multiple tables.
      <literal>SELECT ... FROM t1 JOIN t2 ON t1.c1 = t2.c2  is
      performed by taking rows of t1 one by one and finding a matching row in
      t2. If there is no index index on t2.c2 then for each row of t1, all the
      rows of t2 must be checked. Whereas with an index, a matching row can be
      found in a fraction of the time. If the query also has a condition on
      t1, e.g., <literal>SELECT ... FROM t1 JOIN t2 ON t1.c1 = t2.c2 WHERE
      t1.c3 = 4</literal> then an index on t1.c3 would eliminate the need for
      checking all the rows of t1 one by one, and will reduce query time to
      less than a millisecond per returned row. So if t1 and t2 each contain
      10,000 rows, the query without indexes involves checking 100,000,000 row
      combinations. With an index on t2.c2, this is reduced to 10,000 row
      checks and index lookups. With the additional index on t2.c2, only about
      4 rows are checked to get the first result row.</para>

      <para>Indexes are automatically created for primary key and unique
      columns. Otherwise you should define an index using the CREATE INDEX
      command.</para>

      <para>Note that in HSQLDB a unique index on multiple columns can be used
      internally as a non-unique index on the first column in the list. For
      example: <literal>CONSTRAINT name1 UNIQUE (c1, c2, c3);  means
      there is the equivalent of <literal>CREATE INDEX name2 ON
      atable(c1);</literal>. So you do not need to specify an extra index if
      you require one on the first column of the list.</para>

      <para>In 1.8.0, a multi-column index will speed up queries that contain
      joins or values on ALL the columns. You need NOT declare additional
      individual indexes on those columns unless you use queries that search
      only on a subset of the columns. For example, rows of a table that has a
      PRIMARY KEY or UNIQUE constraint on three columns or simply an ordinary
      index on those columns can be found efficiently when values for all
      three columns are specified in the WHERE clause. For example,
      <literal>SELECT ... FROM t1 WHERE t1.c1 = 4 AND t1.c2 = 6 AND t1.c3 = 8
      </literal>will use an index on t1(c1,c2,c3) if it
      exists.</para>

      <para>As a result of the improvements to multiple key indexes, the order
      of declared columns of the index or constraint has less affect on the
      speed of searches than before. If the column that contains more diverse
      values appears first, the searches will be slightly faster.</para>

      <para>A multi-column index will not speed up queries on the second or
      third column only. The first column must be specified in the JOIN .. ON
      or WHERE conditions.</para>

      <para>Query speed depends a lot on the order of the tables in the JOIN
      .. ON or FROM clauses. For example the second query below should be
      faster with large tables (provided there is an index on
      <literal>TB.COL3). The reason is that TB.COL3 can be evaluated
      very quickly if it applies to the first table (and there is an index on
      TB.COL3):</para>

      <informalexample>
        <programlisting>
    (TB is a very large table with only a few rows where TB.COL3 = 4)

    SELECT * FROM TA JOIN TB ON TA.COL1 = TB.COL2 AND TB.COL3 = 4;

    SELECT * FROM TB JOIN TA ON TA.COL1 = TB.COL2 AND TB.COL3 = 4;</programlisting>
      </informalexample>

      <para>The general rule is to put first the table that has a narrowing
      condition on one of its columns.</para>

      <para>1.7.3 features automatic, on-the-fly indexes for views and
      subselects that are used in a query. An index is added to a view when it
      is joined to a table or another view.</para>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Where Condition or Join

      <para>Using WHERE conditions to join tables is likely
      to reduce execution speed. For example the following query will
      generally be slow, even with indexes:</para>

      <programlisting>
    SELECT ... FROM TA, TB, TC WHERE TC.COL3 = TA.COL1 AND TC.COL3=TB.COL2 AND TC.COL4 = 1</programlisting>

      <para>The query implies TA.COL1 = TB.COL2 but does
      not explicitly set this condition. If TA and TB each contain 100 rows,
      10000 combinations will be joined with TC to apply the column
      conditions, even though there may be indexes on the joined columns. With
      the JOIN keyword, the <literal>TA.COL1 = TB.COL2 condition has
      to be explicit and will narrow down the combination of TA and TB rows
      before they are joined with TC, resulting in much faster execution with
      larger tables:</para>

      <programlisting>
    SELECT ... FROM TA JOIN TB ON TA.COL1 = TB.COL2 JOIN TC ON TB.COL2 = TC.COL3 WHERE TC.COL4 = 1</programlisting>

      <para>The query can be speeded up a lot more if the order of tables in
      joins are changed, so that <literal>TC.COL1 = 1 is applied
      first and a smaller set of rows are joined together:</para>

      <programlisting>
    SELECT ... FROM TC JOIN TB ON TC.COL3 = TB.COL2 JOIN TA ON TC.COL3 = TA.COL1 WHERE TC.COL4 = 1</programlisting>

      <para>In the above example the engine automatically applies
      <literal>TC.COL4 = 1 to TC and joins only the set of rows that
      satisfy this condition with other tables. Indexes on
      <literal>TC.COL4, TB.COL2 and
      <literal>TA.COL1 will be used if present and will speed up the
      query.</para>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Subqueries and Joins

      <para>Using joins and setting up the order of tables for maximum
      performance applies to all areas. For example, the second query below
      should generally be much faster if there are indexes on TA.COL1 and
      TB.COL3:</para>

      <example>
        <title>Query comparison

        <programlisting>
    SELECT ... FROM TA WHERE TA.COL1 = (SELECT MAX(TB.COL2) FROM TB WHERE TB.COL3 = 4)

    SELECT ... FROM (SELECT MAX(TB.COL2) C1 FROM TB WHERE TB.COL3 = 4) T2 JOIN TA ON TA.COL1 = T2.C1</programlisting>
      </example>

      <para>The second query turns MAX(TB.COL2) into a
      single row table then joins it with TA. With an index on
      <literal>TA.COL1, this will be very fast. The first query will
      test each row in TA and evaluate <literal>MAX(TB.COL2) again
      and again.</para>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Types and Arithmetic Operations

    <para>Table columns of all types supported by HSQLDB can be indexed and
    can feature in comparisons. Types can be explicitly converted using the
    CONVERT() library function, but in most cases they are converted
    automatically. It is recommended not to use indexes on LONGVARBINARY,
    LONGVARCHAR and OTHER columns, as these indexes will probably not be
    allowed in future versions.</para>

    <para>Previous versions of HSQLDB featured poor handling of arithmetic
    operations. For example, it was not possible to insert
    <literal>10/2.5 into any DOUBLE or DECIMAL column. Since 1.7.0,
    full operations are possible with the following rules:</para>

    <para>TINYINT, SMALLINT, INTEGER, BIGINT, NUMERIC and DECIMAL (without a
    decimal point) are supported integral types and map to byte, short, int,
    long and BigDecimal in Java. The SQL type dictates the maximum and minimum
    values that can be held in a field of each type. For example the value
    range for TINYINT is -128 to +127, although the actual Java type used for
    handling TINYINT is <classname>java.lang.Integer.

    <para>REAL, FLOAT, DOUBLE are all mapped to double in Java.

    <para>DECIMAL and NUMERIC are mapped to
    <classname>java.math.BigDecimal and can have very large
    numbers of digits.</para>

    <section>
      <title>Integral Types

      <para>TINYINT, SMALLINT, INTEGER, BIGINT, NUMERIC and DECIMAL (without a
      decimal point) are fully interchangeable internally, and no data
      narrowing takes place. Depending on the types of the operands, the
      result of the operations is returned in a JDBC
      <classname>ResultSet in any of related Java types:
      <classname>Integer, Long or
      <classname>BigDecimal. The
      <literal>ResultSet.getXXXX() methods can be used to retrieve
      the values so long as the returned value can be represented by the
      resulting type. This type is deterministically based on the query, not
      on the actual rows returned. The type does not change when the same
      query that returned one row, returns many rows as a result of adding
      more data to the tables.</para>

      <para>If the SELECT statement refers to a simple column or function,
      then the return type is the type corresponding to the column or the
      return type of the function. For example:</para>

      <informalexample>
        <programlisting>
    CREATE TABLE t(a INTEGER, b BIGINT); SELECT MAX(a), MAX(b) FROM t;</programlisting>
      </informalexample>

      <para>would return a result set where the type of the first column is
      <filename>java.lang.Integer and the second column is
      <filename>java.lang.Long. However,

      <informalexample>
        <programlisting>
    SELECT MAX(a) + 1, MAX(b) + 1 FROM t;</programlisting>
      </informalexample>

      <para>would return java.lang.Long and
      <classname>BigDecimal values, generated as a result of
      uniform type promotion for all the return values.</para>

      <para>There is no built-in limit on the size of intermediate integral
      values in expressions. As a result, you should check for the type of the
      <classname>ResultSet column and choose an appropriate
      <literal>getXXXX() method to retrieve it. Alternatively, you
      can use the <literal>getObject() method, then cast the result
      to <classname>java.lang.Number  and use the
      <literal>intValue() or longValue() methods
      on the result.</para>

      <para>When the result of an expression is stored in a column of a
      database table, it has to fit in the target column, otherwise an error
      is returned. For example when <literal>1234567890123456789012 /
      12345687901234567890</literal> is evaluated, the result can be stored in
      any integral type column, even a TINYINT column, as it is a small
      value.</para>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Other Numeric Types

      <para>In SQL statements, numbers with a decimal point are treated as
      DECIMAL unless they are written with an exponent. Thus
      <literal>0.2 is considered a DECIMAL value but
      <literal>0.2E0 is considered a DOUBLE value.

      <para>When PreparedStatement.setDouble() or
      <literal>setFloat() is used, the value is treated as a DOUBLE
      automatically.</para>

      <para>When a REAL, FLOAT or DOUBLE (all synonymous) is part of an
      expression, the type of the result is DOUBLE.</para>

      <para>Otherwise, when no DOUBLE value exists, if a DECIMAL or NUMERIC
      value is part an expression, the type of the result is DECIMAL. The
      result can be retrieved from a <classname>ResultSet in the
      required type so long as it can be represented. This means DECIMAL
      values can be converted to DOUBLE unless they are beyond the
      <literal>Double.MIN_VALUE - Double.MAX_VALUE range. Similar to
      integral values, when the result of an expression is stored in a table
      column, it has to fit in the target column, otherwise an error is
      returned.</para>

      <para>The distinction between DOUBLE and DECIMAL is important when a
      division takes place. When the terms are DECIMAL, the result is a value
      with a scale (number of digits to the right of the decimal point) equal
      to the larger of the scales of the two terms. With a DOUBLE term, the
      scale will reflect the actual result of the operation. For example,
      <literal>10.0/8.0 (DECIMAL) equals 1.2 but
      <literal>10.0E0/8.0E0 (DOUBLE) equals 1.25.
      Without division operations, DECIMAL values represent exact arithmetic;
      the resulting scale is the sum of the scales of the two terms when
      multiplication is performed.</para>

      <para>REAL, FLOAT and DOUBLE values are all stored in the database as
      <classname>java.lang.Double objects. Special values such as
      NaN and +-Infinity are also stored and supported. These values can be
      submitted to the database via JDBC PreparedStatement methods and are
      returned in ResultSet objects.</para>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Bit and Boolean Types

      <para>Since 1.7.2, BIT is simply an alias for BOOLEAN. The primary
      representation of BOOLEAN column is <literal>'true' or
      <literal>'false' either as the boolean type or as strings when
      used from JDBC. This type of column can also be initialised using values
      of any numeric type. In this case <literal>0 is translated to
      <literal>false and any other value such as 1 is translated to
      <literal>true.

      <para>Since 1.7.3 the BOOLEAN type conforms to the SQL standards and
      supports the UNDEFINED state in addition to TRUE or FALSE. NULL values
      are treated as undefined. This improvement affects queries that contain
      NOT IN. See the test text file, TestSelfNot.txt, for examples of the
      queries.</para>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Storage and Handling of Java Objects

      <para>Since version 1.7.2 this support has improved and any serializable
      JAVA Object can be inserted directly into a column of type OTHER using
      any variation of <literal>PreparedStatement.setObject()
      methods.</para>

      <para>For comparison purposes and in indexes, any two Java Objects are
      considered equal unless one of them is NULL. You cannot search for a
      specific object or perform a join on a column of type OTHER.</para>

      <para>Please note that HSQLDB is not an object-relational database. Java
      Objects can simply be stored internally and no operations should be
      performed on them other than assignment between columns of type OTHER or
      tests for NULL. Tests such as <literal>WHERE object1 =
      object2</literal>, or WHERE object1 = ? do not mean
      what you might expect, as any non-null object would satisfy such a
      tests. But <literal>WHERE object1 IS NOT NULL is perfectly
      acceptable.</para>

      <para>The engine does not return errors when normal column values are
      assigned to Java Object columns (for example assigning an INTEGER or
      STRING to such a column with an SQL statement such as <literal>UPDATE
      mytable SET objectcol = intcol WHERE ...</literal>) but this is highly
      likely to be disallowed in future. So please use columns of type OTHER
      only to store your objects and nothing else.</para>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Type Size, Precision and Scale

      <para>Prior to 1.7.2, all table column type definitions with a column
      size, precision or scale qualifier were accepted and ignored.</para>

      <para>In 1.8.0, such qualifiers must conform to the SQL standards. For
      example INTEGER(8) is no longer acceptable. The qualifiers are still
      ignored unless you set a database property. <literal>SET PROPERTY
      "sql.enforce_strict_size" TRUE </literal>will enforce sizes for
      CHARACTER or VARCHAR columns and pad any strings when inserting or
      updating a CHARACTER column. The precision and scale qualifiers are also
      enforced for DECIMAL and NUMERIC types. TIMESTAMP can be used with a
      precision of 0 or 6 only.</para>

      <para>Casting a value to a qualified CHARACTER type will result in
      truncation or padding as you would expect. So a test such as
      <literal>CAST (mycol AS VARCHAR(2)) = 'xy' will find the
      values beginning with 'xy'. This is the equivalent of
      <literal>SUBSTRING(mycol FROM 1 FOR 2) = 'xy'.
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Sequences and Identity

    <para>The SEQUENCE keyword was introduced in 1.7.2 with a subset of the
    SQL 200n standard syntax. Corresponding SQL 200n syntax for IDENTITY
    columns has also been introduced.</para>

    <section>
      <title>Identity Auto-Increment Columns

      <para>Each table can contain one auto-increment column, known as the
      IDENTITY column. An IDENTITY column is always treated as the primary key
      for the table (as a result, multi-column primary keys are not possible
      with an IDENTITY column present). Support has been added for
      <literal>CREATE TABLE <tablename>(<colname> IDENTITY,
      ...)</literal> as a shortcut.

      <para>Since 1.7.2, the SQL standard syntax is used by default, which
      allows the initial value to be specified. The supported form
      is<literal>(<colname> INTEGER GENERATED BY DEFAULT AS
      IDENTITY(START WITH n, [INCREMENT BY m])PRIMARY KEY, ...)</literal>.
      Support has also been added for <literal>BIGINT identity
      columns. As a result, an IDENTITY column is simply an INTEGER or BIGINT
      column with its default value generated by a sequence generator.</para>

      <para>When you add a new row to such a table using an INSERT
      INTO <tablename> ...; </literal>statement, you can use the NULL
      value for the IDENTITY column, which results in an auto-generated value
      for the column. The <literal>IDENTITY() function returns the
      last value inserted into any IDENTITY column by this connection. Use
      <literal>CALL IDENTITY(); as an SQL statement to retrieve this
      value. If you want to use the value for a field in a child table, you
      can use <literal>INSERT INTO <childtable> VALUES
      (...,IDENTITY(),...);</literal>. Both types of call to
      IDENTITY()</literal> must be made before any additional update or insert
      statements are issued on the database.</para>

      <para>The next IDENTITY value to be used can be set with the
      <programlisting>ALTER TABLE ALTER COLUMN <column name> RESTART WITH <new value>;
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Sequences

      <para>The SQL 200n syntax and usage is different from what is supported
      by many existing database engines. Sequences are created with the
      <literal>CREATE SEQUENCE command and their current value can
      be modified at any time with <literal>ALTER SEQUENCE. The next
      value for a sequence is retrieved with the <literal>NEXT VALUE FOR
      <name></literal> expression. This expression can be used for
      inserting and updating table rows. You can also use it in select
      statements. For example, if you want to number the returned rows of a
      SELECT in sequential order, you can use:</para>

      <example>
        <title>Numbering returned rows of a SELECT in sequential order

        <programlisting>
    SELECT NEXT VALUE FOR mysequence, col1, col2 FROM mytable WHERE ...</programlisting>
      </example>

      <para>Please note that the semantics of sequences is not exactly the
      same as defined by SQL 200n. For example if you use the same sequence
      twice in the same row insert query, you will get two different values,
      not the same value as required by the standard.</para>

      <para>You can query the SYSTEM_SEQUENCES table for the next value that
      will be returned from any of the defined sequences. The SEQUENCE_NAME
      column contains the name and the NEXT_VALUE column contains the next
      value to be returned.</para>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Issues with Transactions

    <para>HSQLDB supports transactions at the READ_UNCOMMITTED level, also
    known as level 0 transaction isolation. This means that during the
    lifetime of a transaction, other connections to the database can see the
    changes made to the data. Transaction support works well in general.
    Reported bugs concerning transactions being committed if the database is
    abruptly closed have been fixed. However, the following issues may be
    encountered only with multiple connections to a database using
    transactions:</para>

    <para>If two transactions modify the same row, no exception is raised when
    both transactions are committed. This can be avoided by designing your
    database in such a way that application data consistency does not depend
    on exclusive modification of data by one transaction. You can set a
    database property to cause an exception when this happens.<programlisting>SET PROPERTY "sql.tx_no_multi_rewrite" TRUEWhen
    an <literal>ALTER TABLE .. INSERT COLUMN or DROP
    COLUMN</literal> command results in changes to the table structure, the
    current session is committed. If an uncommitted transaction started by
    another connections has changed the data in the affected table, it may not
    be possible to roll it back after the <literal>ALTER TABLE
    command. This may also apply to <literal>ADD INDEX or
    <literal>ADD CONSTRAINT commands. It is recommended to use these
    <literal>ALTER commands only when it is known that other
    connections are not using transactions.</para>

    <para>After a CHECKPOINT command is issued, uncommitted transactions can
    be continued, committed, or rolled back. However, if the database is not
    subsequently closed properly with the SHUTDOWN command, any such
    transaction that still remains uncommitted at the time of shutdown, is
    part committed (to the state at CHECKPOINT) at the next startup. It is
    recommended to use the CHECKPOINT command either when no uncommitted
    transactions is in progress, or it is known that any such transaction is
    not likely to last for such a long time that an abnormal shutdown might
    affect its data.</para>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>New Features and Changes

    <para>In recent versions leading to 1.8.0 many enhancements were made for
    better SQL support. These are listed in the <link
    endterm="sqlsyntax-title" linkend="sqlsyntax-chapter" /> chapter, in
    <ulink url="../changelog_1_8_0.txt" /> and .
 Functions and expressions such as
    POSITION(), SUBSTRING(), NULLIF(), COALESCE(), CASE ... WHEN .. ELSE, ANY,
    ALL etc. are among them. Other enhancements may not be very obvious in the
    documentation but can result in changes of behaviour from previous
    versions. Most significant among these are handling of NULL values in
    joins (null columns are no longer joined) and OUTER joins (the results are
    now correct). You should test your applications with the new version to
    ensure they do not rely on past incorrect behaviour of the engine. The
    engine will continue to evolve in future versions towards full SQL
    standard support, so it is best not to rely on any non-standard feature of
    the current version.</para>
  </section>
</chapter>