RELEASE NOTES for 2.1BETA3.50x64 (2.1RC1.50x64)
========================================================================

------------------------------------------------------------------------
   NEW COMMANDS/MODIFIERS
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--- CAPACITY command

Returns the number of records that can be stored into the specified 
table(s), along with the number of currently used and available slots.

Syntax:

   CAPACITY '' | tables | ALL

      '' - current table
      tables - comma-delimited list of tables
      ALL - all the tables in the current schema

Example:

   CAPACITY AS_CSV 'Police.Person'
Table|Total|InUse|Available
Person|1000|1000|0



--- DESCRIBE_TYPE command

Returns the possible values of a user-defined type (currently an ENUMERATION)

Syntax:

   DESCRIBE_TYPE type

Example:

   DESCRIBE_TYPE AS_CSV 'School.Gender'
Code|Value
1|Male
2|Female



--- DESCRIBE_REFERENCES command

Returns the information of the references of the specified table(s).

Syntax:

   DESCRIBE_REFERENCES '' | tables | ALL

      '' - current table
      tables - comma-delimited list of tables
      ALL - all the tables in the current schema

Example:

   USE'Police'
   DESCRIBE_REFERENCES AS_CSV ALL
SourceTable|SourceColumn|TargetTable|TargetColumn
Ticket|Driver|Person|ID
Ticket|Vehicle|Vehicle|ID
Vehicle|Model|Model|ID
Vehicle|Owner|Person|ID



--- NOT_EXISTS modifier

Selects the rows that does not match the specified conditions.

Syntax:

   [WHERE|AND] NOT_EXISTS(condition1 SUCH_THAT condition2 WITHIN tolerance)

      condition1 - first condition that should be met
      condition2 - second condition that should be met
      tolerance  - tolerance for the second condition
      
Example:

   FROM 'TableA'
   WHERE NOT_EXISTS('Column = TableB.Column' SUCH_THAT 'DateTime = TableB.DateTime' WITHIN 60 MINUTES)



------------------------------------------------------------------------
   NEW OPTIONS
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--- AUTOOPEN

If TRUE, tables are automatically opened when needed


--- TIMEOUT_DISK

Controls the HD timeout for creation and deletion of files/directories


--- INPUTFORMAT/DATE

Specifies the format to parse dates in input text files


--- LOADER_ONERROR

Specifies the action to take when an invalid input line is processed by the loader



------------------------------------------------------------------------
   EXTENDED FUNCTIONALITY
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--- EXCEL-TO-VSTAR examplet (WIN32)



--- LOADER: Fixed-width input files

The "POSITION (START:END)" specification is now supported in the SELECT
command to import fixed-width files.

Example:

   INSERT_INTO 'Table'
   FROM FILE 'File.txt'
   SELECT 'Column1 POSITION (1:18), Column2 POSITION(19:25), Column3 POSITION(26)'



--- LOADER: Filtered input

The following operators can now be used to filter lines from both CSV and
fixed-width files:

   = / <> / IN / NOT IN

Currently, filters can only be specified with WHERE and monadic AND commands.

Example:

   INSERT_INTO 'Table'
   FROM FILE 'File.txt'
   WHERE 'POSITION(237) = "S"'
   AND   'POSITION(41:44) <> "0800"'
   SELECT ...



--- AND / OR evaluation

AND|OR operators are now supported in the arguments of the WHERE, AND & OR commands:

   WHERE 'condition1 AND condition2 OR condition3'

The AND|OR commands behave as the AND|OR operators in the arguments of the WHERE, AND & OR commands:

   WHERE 'x AND y OR z' == WHERE 'x' AND 'y' OR 'z'

IMPORTANT: The following functionality is not (yet) supported:
   Parenthesis in the WHERE, AND & OR commands
   AND|OR operators in LOADER filters



--- Dyadic functions in SELECT/GET expressions

The following pattern is now supported as an argument of SELECT/GET:

   'expr1 DYAD1 expr2 ... DYADN exprN'

Example:

   SELECT 'DECODE(Column1;123;0) + ABS(Column2) + Column3'



--- Configuration

Options are now set in the following order:
1. Read global config (n/n64/ini/n.ini)
2. Read user's config ($HOME/VSTAR/n.ini), overriding any previous values
3. Read environment variables, overriding any previous values

Current limitations:
* neither ~/ nor $ENV_VAR_NAME are resolved in .ini files
* "~/" is not resolved to "$HOME" when reading environment variables



--- Other

* More detailed INTERFACE_ERROR report

* dt2day (DateTime-to-Day) and dt2sec (DateTime-to-Seconds) are now 8X faster

* FETCH/XML and FETCH/TXT option is now applied to all formats



------------------------------------------------------------------------
   BUG FIXES
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ADD_COLUMN in a non-empty table
UPDATE in STRING datatype
Concurrent read access raised "syntax error" on some processes
Performance issues with hash searches
Text file load failed with files bigger than 6GB