TABLES Section

The TABLES section lists the database tables that are referenced elsewhere in the form specification file. You must list in this section any table, view, or synonym that includes a column whose name is referenced in the form.

You must use the TABLES section to declare an alias for the identifier of any table that requires a qualifier. In an ANSI-compliant database, for example, you must qualify any table name with the owner prefix if the form will be run by users other than owner.

Similarly, if the form references an external table or external, distributed table, as described in the description of the DATABASE section, then the name of the table must be qualified by the name of the remote database and by the name of the database server.

alias is the alias that replaces table in the form specification file.

database is the name of a database (one that is different from the database that you specified in the DATABASE section).

owner is the username of whoever created table.

server is the name of a database server where database resides. This option requires INFORMIX-STAR or INFORMIX-NET.

table is the identifier or synonym of a table or view in its database.

If the DATABASE section specifies FORMONLY, no TABLES section is needed, unless you give a field the VALIDATE LIKE or DISPLAY LIKE attribute in the ATTRIBUTES Section, or specify a FORMONLY field LIKE a database column.

You must identify the database of any table that is not part of the database that you specified in the DATABASE section. Every database column referenced in the ATTRIBUTES section must be part of some table specified in the TABLES Section. The table identifier is the name listed in the tabname column of the systables catalog, or else a synonym.

4GL allows you to specify up to 20 tables, but the actual limit on the number of tables, views, and synonyms that you can reference in a form depends on how your system is configured.

You must specify an alias for any table that requires a qualifier. You do not need to specify alias, unless the form will be used in an ANSI-compliant database by a user who did not create table, or the form references an external table, or an external, distributed table.