SQLsel

What it does

SQLsel names the SQL-facing query workflows in DotTalk++ / x64base.

Its subject is set-oriented retrieval rather than cursor navigation. It covers:

• a SELECT statement over an open work area
• WHERE filtering, ORDER BY with direction, LIMIT
• COUNT(*) with or without a predicate
• statement scoping: no session state read, no cursor moved

Real local command surfaces include:

SQLSEL SELECT SID,LNAME FROM STUDENTS
SQLSEL SELECT * FROM STUDENTS WHERE MAJOR = "CSCI"
SQLSEL SELECT SID,LNAME FROM STUDENTS ORDER BY LNAME DESC LIMIT 2
SQLSEL SELECT COUNT(*) FROM STUDENTS WHERE GPA >= 3.0
SQLSEL USAGE

Statement scoping

A SQLsel statement names its own table and does not consult session state. It ignores any active SET FILTER, does not depend on the current work area, and restores every cursor it moves. Two consequences worth knowing:

• the same statement returns the same rows regardless of where you were positioned or what filter was set
• it reads committed table truth, so under TABLE BUFFER ON an uncommitted edit is not visible to it

The second is a deliberate ruling rather than an accident. A statement that filtered on committed data but displayed buffered data would return a row that visibly fails its own WHERE clause.

Verification

REGRESSION SQLSEL_SELECT_V1 compares every result set against an in-process SQLite oracle over identical data in the same run, and asserts:

• ORDER BY sorts the full match set before LIMIT cuts it
• cursor position is unchanged, checked by data
• corrective errors for an unopened table, an expression where a column belongs, a bad LIMIT, an unknown ORDER BY field, and ORDER BY on COUNT(*)
• LIMIT reports what it withheld; ORDER BY reports its access path

Not yet implemented

JOIN, GROUP BY / HAVING, expression projection, SQL DML, and the bare SELECT alias. The table must already be open: SQLsel reads open work areas and does not open files.

SQLsel and RelTalk

Two related surfaces, one older and one newer, neither replacing the other.

Both read the same tables through the same indexes. See RelTalk and SQLsel and SQL Conformance.