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SQL programming
You can use the HCL Informix® implementation of the SQL language to develop applications for Informix database servers.
Guide to SQL: Syntax
The Informix® Guide to SQL: Syntax describes the syntax of the statements, data types, expressions, operators, and built-in functions of the Informix dialect of the SQL language.
Data types and expressions
These topics describe the data types and expressions that Informix®supports.
Expression
Constant Expressions
Certain expressions that return a fixed value are called constant expressions. These include variant function operators that read the system clock, but that are valid in contexts where literal constants are also valid.
SYSDATE Operator

SQL programming
You can use the HCL Informix® implementation of the SQL language to develop applications for Informix database servers.
- Guide to SQL: Syntax
  The Informix® Guide to SQL: Syntax describes the syntax of the statements, data types, expressions, operators, and built-in functions of the Informix dialect of the SQL language.
  - Overview of SQL syntax
    These topics provide an overview about how to use the SQL statements, SPL statements, and syntax segments.
  - SQL statements
    This chapter describes the syntax and semantics of SQL statements that are recognized by Informix®.
  - SPL statements
    These topics describe Stored Procedure Language (SPL) statements, which you use to write SPL routines. You can store these routines in the database as user-defined routines (UDRs).
  - Data types and expressions
    These topics describe the data types and expressions that Informix®supports.
    - Scope of Segment Descriptions
    - Use of Segment Descriptions
    - Data type and expression segments
      Data type and expression segments can appear in SQL statements.
    - Collection Subquery
    - Condition
    - Data Type
      The Data Type segment specifies the data type of a column, of a component of a collection, of a field within a ROW type, of a routine parameter, or of a value returned by an expression or by a cast function. Use this segment whenever you see a reference to a data type in a syntax diagram.
    - DATETIME Field Qualifier
      Use a DATETIME Field Qualifier to specify the largest and smallest unit of time in a DATETIME column or value. Use this segment whenever you see a reference to a DATETIME Field Qualifier in a syntax diagram.
    - Expression
      - List of Expressions
        Each category of SQL expression includes many individual expressions.
      - Arithmetic Operators
      - Bitwise Logical Functions
      - Concatenation Operator
      - CAST Expressions
        Use the CAST (... AS ...) keywords or the double-colon ( :: ) cast operator to convert the data type of the value of an expression to some other target data type.
      - Column Expressions
        A column expression specifies a data value in a column in the database, or a substring of the value, or a field within a ROW-type column, or a field in a BSON column.
      - Conditional Expressions
      - Constant Expressions
        Certain expressions that return a fixed value are called constant expressions. These include variant function operators that read the system clock, but that are valid in contexts where literal constants are also valid.
        Quoted String
        Literal Number
        A literal number specifies a numeric value.
        USER or CURRENT_USER Operator
        CURRENT_ROLE Operator
        DEFAULT_ROLE Operator
        DBSERVERNAME and SITENAME Operators
        The DBSERVERNAME operator returns the SQL identifier of the database server, as defined by the DBSERVERNAME parameter in the ONCONFIG file for the Informix® instance where the current database resides, or as specified in the INFORMIXSERVER environment variable. SITENAME is a keyword synonym for the DBSERVERNAME operator.
        TODAY Operator
        CURRENT Operator
        SYSDATE Operator
        Literal DATETIME
        A literal DATETIME specifies the value of an DATETIME data type, including its qualifying time-units.
        Literal INTERVAL
        A literal INTERVAL specifies the value of an INTERVAL data type, including its qualifying time-units.
        UNITS Operator
        NEXTVAL and CURRVAL Operators
        Literal Row
        Literal Collection
      - Constructor Expressions
      - NULL Keyword
      - Function Expressions
      - Statement-Local Variable Expressions
      - Aggregate Expressions
    - OLAP window expressions
      You can include On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) expressions in a SELECT statement to operate on subsets of the rows in the result set of a query or subquery. You can use OLAP window expressions to examine subsets of the qualifying rows for patterns, trends, or exceptions in the data.
    - INTERVAL Field Qualifier
    - Literal Collection
    - Literal DATETIME
      The Literal DATETIME segment specifies a DATETIME value
    - Literal INTERVAL
      The Literal INTERVAL segment specifies a literal INTERVAL value. Use this whenever you see a reference to a literal INTERVAL in a syntax diagram.
    - Literal Number
    - Literal Row
      The Literal Row segment specifies the syntax for literal values of named and unnamed ROW data types.
    - Quoted String
    - Relational Operator
  - Other syntax segments
    These topics describe syntax segments, which are language elements, such as database object names or optimizer directives, that appear as a subdiagram reference in the syntax diagrams of some SQL or SPL statements.
  - Built-In Routines
  - Appendixes
- Guide to SQL: Reference
  The Informix® Guide to SQL: Reference contains the reference information for the system catalog tables, data types, and environment variables of the HCL Informix dialect of the SQL language, as implemented in HCL Informix. These topics also include information about the stores_demo, sales_demo, and superstore_demo databases that are included with HCL Informix.
- Guide to SQL: Tutorial
  The Informix® Guide to SQL: Tutorial shows how to use basic and advanced structured query language (SQL) to access and manipulate the data in your databases. It discusses the data manipulation language (DML) statements as well as triggers and stored procedure language (SPL) routines, which DML statements often use.

SYSDATE Operator

The SYSDATE operator returns the current DATETIME value from the system clock. SYSDATE is identical to the CURRENT operator, except that the default precision of SYSDATE is YEAR TO FRACTION(5), while the default precision of CURRENT is YEAR TO FRACTION(3).

On Windows™ platforms that do not support a seconds scale greater than FRACTION(3), SYSDATE is in effect a synonym for the CURRENT operator,

You can use SYSDATE in any context where the CURRENT operator is valid.

The SQL statements in the following example use the SYSDATE operator to specify the default values for two DATETIME columns of a database table, and to insert a new row into the table:

CREATE TABLE tab1 (
id SERIAL,
value CHAR(20),
time1 DATETIME YEAR TO FRACTION(5) DEFAULT SYSDATE,
time2 DATETIME YEAR TO SECOND DEFAULT SYSDATE YEAR TO SECOND
);

INSERT INTO tab1 VALUES (0, 'description', SYSDATE, SYSDATE);

The following query accesses the table that was created in the previous example:

SELECT SYSDATE AS sysdate, * FROM tab1;

The results are sensitive to the date and time when the INSERT and SELECT statements are issued, but the query could return these values on September 23, 2007:

sysdate  2007-09-23 21:30:23.00000
id       1
value    description
time1    2007-09-23 21:29:27.00000
time2    2007-09-23 21:29:27

The next query accesses the same table, using SYSDATE in the WHERE clause as an argument to the DAY function:

SELECT *, DAY(time1) AS day FROM tab1 
   WHERE DAY(time1) = DAY(SYSDATE);

The query could return these values on September 23, 2007:

id       1
value    description
time1    2007-09-23 21:29:27.00000
time2    2007-09-23 21:29:27
day      23

Only Informix® supports SYSDATE. Except for its name and its default precision, the description of the CURRENT operator in this document also describes the SYSDATE operator.