ALTER DATABASE

Purpose

Used to define database metadata

Syntax

ALTER DATABASE <cDatabase> METADATA <cMetaData>

See Also

ADD TABLE, ALTER INDEX, ALTER TABLE, ALTER VIRTUALTABLE, COLUMNMETADATA(), CONSTRAINTS, CREATE DATABASE, CREATE INDEX, CREATE TABLE, CREATE TRIGGER, CREATE VIRTUALTABLE, DATA TYPES, DATABASEMETADATA(), DELETE TRIGGER, DROP DATABASE, DROP INDEX, DROP TABLE, GETENV(), INSERT, METADATA_DECODE(), METADATA_ENCODE(), METADATA_FINDTYPE(), OPEN DATABASE, SELECT, TABLEMETADATA(), TABLEMETADATAVERSION()

Description

The ALTER DATABASE command is used to define database metadata for the database <cDatabase>. The metadata to be applied to the database is specified in the <cMetaData> character string. For use with the MetaData Editor in the Data workspace, the <cMetaData> string should be in the format:

"name1=value;name2=value"

without internal quotes.

Alternatively, <cMetaData> can be a JSON string, in which case it is not modifiable or viewable in the MetaData Editor.

Database metadata is stored in the <database-basename>.cad file in the database's directory.

Example

// Name value pairs for use with the MetaData Editor
alter database southwind metadata "company=Lianja Inc.;contact=sales@lianja.com"
open database southwind
? databaseMetaData() // --> 'company=Lianja Inc.;contact=sales@lianja.com'
// Assignments are not cumulative
alter database southwind metadata "purpose=Sample Database"
open database southwind
? databaseMetaData() // --> 'purpose=Sample Database'
// Specifying an empty string clears the metadata
alter database southwind metadata ""
open database southwind
? databaseMetaData() // --> ''
 
 
// JSON string
alter database sw2 metadata '{"purpose":"Documentation Test Database","owner":"Yvonne Milne"}'
open database sw2
? databasemetadata() // --> '{"purpose":"Documentation Test Database","owner":"Yvonne Milne"}'