Most programming languages have an ODBC access facility to allow files to be read or updated as well. ODBC/SQL allows standardized access to ProvideX data via:

• Standardized Data Formats: Text strings, numerics, dates.
• Logical Relationships: Relates files with common data elements.
• Data Sorting, Grouping and Filtering.
• Simple Data Computations: Sum, Max, Min, Count, Avg.

The ProvideX ODBC driver supports three basic types of data: strings, numerics, and dates.

The SELECT statement is used to establish logical relationships between data files (usually referred to as joining files). A typical JOIN would be:

SELECT cst_id, cst_name, smn_name FROM Customer, Salesman
      WHERE smn_id = cst_smn

The statement reads the entire Customer file and for each customer, reads the Salesman file for any records whose smn_id matches cst_smn. If the field smn_id is a Key field for the file, then the ProvideX ODBC driver reads the file directly by key, otherwise the file is read in its entirety. The WHERE clause can be used to selectively filter out any unwanted data.

The ODBC driver can sort the data on any field using the ORDER BY clause of the SELECT statement. If the ORDER BY fields match any of the key fields of the primary file, then the primary file is accessed by this key. In addition, you can GROUP data BY common fields.

SUM, COUNT, AVG, MAX, MIN functions can be used to provide statistical information on the data fields.