NAME
  mdb-sql - SQL interface to MDB Tools

SYNOPSIS
  mdb-sql [-HFp] [-d char] [-i file] [-o file] [database]
  mdb-sql -h|--help

DESCRIPTION
  mdb-sql is a utility program distributed with MDB Tools. 

  mdb-sql allows querying of an MDB database using a limited SQL subset
language. 

OPTIONS
  -H, --no-header              Suppress header row.
  -F, --no-footer              Suppress footer row.
  -p, --no-pretty-print        Turn off pretty printing. By default results are printed in an
ascii table format which looks nice but is not conducive to manipulating the
output with unix tools. This option prints output plainly in a tab separated
format.
  -d, --delimiter char         Specify an alternative column delimiter. If no delimiter is
specified, columns will be delimited by a tab character if pretty printing
(-p) is turned off. If pretty printing is enabled this option is meaningless.
  -i, --input file             Specify an input file. This option allows an input file containing the SQL to be passed to mdb-sql.  See Notes.
  -o, --output file            Specify an output file. This option allows the name of an output file to be used instead of stdout.

COMMANDS
  mdb-sql in interactive mode takes some special commands. 

  connect to database    If no database was specified on the command line this command is necessary before any querys are issued. It also allows the switching of databases once in the tool.
  disconnect             Will disconnect from the current database.
  go                     Each batch is sent to the parser using the 'go' command.
  reset	                 A batch can be cleared using the 'reset' command.
  list tables            The list tables command will display a list of available tables in this database, similar to the mdb-tables utility on the command line.
  describe table <table>   Will display the column information for the specified table.
  quit                   Will exit the tool.

SQL LANGUAGE
  The currently implemented SQL subset is quite small, supporting only single table queries, no aggregates, and limited support for WHERE clauses. Here is a brief synopsis of the supported language.

  select:	SELECT [* | <column list>] FROM <table> WHERE <where clause>

  column list:	<column> [, <column list>]

  where clause:		<column> <operator> <literal> [AND <where clause>]

  operator:	=, =>, =<, <>, like, <, >

  literal:	integers, floating point numbers, or string literal in single quotes

NOTES
  When passing a file (-i) or piping output to mdb-sql the final 'go' is optional. This allow constructs like 

  echo "Select * from Table1" | mdb-sql mydb.mdb 

  to work correctly.

  The -i command can be passed the string 'stdin' to test entering text as if using a pipe.

ENVIRONMENT
  MDB_JET3_CHARSET    Defines the charset of the input JET3 (access 97) file. Default is CP1252. See iconv(1).
  MDBICONV            Defines the output charset. Default is UTF-8. mdbtools must have been compiled with iconv.
  MDBOPTS             Colon-separated list of options:
                      * debug_like
                      * debug_write
                      * debug_usage
                      * debug_ole
                      * debug_row
                      * debug_props
                      * debug_all is a shortcut for all debug_* options
                      * no_memo (deprecated; has no effect)
                      * use_index (experimental; requires libmswstr)

HISTORY
  mdb-sql first appeared in MDB Tools 0.3.

SEE ALSO
  mdb-array(1) mdb-count(1) mdb-export(1) mdb-header(1) mdb-hexdump(1)
  mdb-import(1) mdb-json(1) mdb-parsecsv(1) mdb-prop(1) mdb-queries(1)
  mdb-schema(1) mdb-tables(1) mdb-ver(1)
  isql(1)

AUTHORS
  The mdb-sql utility was written by Brian Bruns.

BUGS
  The supported SQL syntax is a very limited subset and deficient in several ways.