Jive Types & Variables

Data Types

Jive supports a full range of data types:

string - variable length text
int - 32 bit integer
float - 64 bit integer
bool - 1 bit logical value (true, false)
date - year, month, day
time - hour, minute, second
timestamp - year, month, day, hour, minute, second, nanosecond

Each data type can have a missing value called null in SQL.

Literal values for each data type:

string - text surrounded by single or double quotes
int - optional sign and 1 or more numeric digits
int - optional sign and numeric digits with decimal point (a leading decimal point is discouraged)
bool - true or false - preset variables
date - yyyy/mm/dd where y, m, d are numeric digits
time - hh:mm:ss where h, m, s are numeric digits
timestamp - no literal representation

Most reasonable conversions are supported. All data types can be converted to and from string and to bool. Converting from strings uses the same format as the literal representation above. A quoted string literal can be used for timestamp. For example:

var timestamp test_value = '1995/12/31 23:59:59.999999999'

Additionally, a quoted string literal for float can contain exponental (e) notation. For example,

var float million = '1e+6'

Variables

The var Command is used to create variables. A variable has a data type and a value. The value of a variable is assigned with the set Command. A variable is local to its containing block - a query (select) block, a while block or the entire Jive text (effectively, global). Variables in the outer enclosing block can be referenced unless their name is overridden by a more inner variable definition.

Qualification can be used to reference global variables (using root as the qualifier) and query result variables. Dot (.) is used as the qualifier. Multiple qualifiers descend from the left. Inner qualifiers can be omitted like COBOL.

A variable must contain a value of its defined type, or it must be null. Nulls in Jive are the same as in SQL. Nulls can be passed between Jive and SQL databases. null is a keyword in Jive for a null. For example,

set a = null

A null is also used for uninitialized variables and as the result of syntax or semantic errors. For example,

set x = y

will set x to null when y is undefined.

Variables can also be created with:

input Commands to receive HTML form input values
env Commands to retrieve environment variable values
Result columns from Query (select) Commands

Result column variables are readonly.