IBM GC09-2830-00 Interactive Input Mode, OS/2 Click on OS/2 Warp, and select DB2 for OS/2±Command

If the DB2 command contains characters that have special meaning on the operating system you are using, you will need to enter the command in quotation marks to ensure that it is run properly.

For example, the following command would retrieve all the information from the employee table, even if the * character has a special meaning on the operating system:

db2 "select * from employee"

If you need to enter a long command that does not ®t on one line, use the line continuation character, \. When you have reached the end of the line, press the Enter key to continue entering the command on the next line. For example:

db2 select empno, function, firstname, lastname, birthdate, from \ db2 (cont.) => employee where function=©service© and \

db2 (cont.) => firstname=©Lily© order by empno desc

Interactive Input Mode

To invoke the command line processor in interactive input mode, do the following:

OS/2 Click on OS/2 Warp, and select DB2 for OS/2±>Command

Line Processor or enter the db2 command.

Windows 9x or Windows NT

Click on Start, and select Programs->DB2 for

Windows->Command Line Processor.

You can also invoke the command line processor in interactive input mode by entering the db2cmd command followed by the db2 command at an MS-DOS prompt.

In interactive input mode, the prompt looks like this:

db2 =>

In interactive input mode, you do not have to enter DB2 commands with a db2 pre®x; instead, you just enter the DB2 command. For example:

db2 => list database directory

To enter operating system commands in interactive mode, precede the operating-system command with an exclamation mark (!). For example:

db2 => !dir

If you need to enter a long command that does not ®t on one line, use the line continuation character, \. When you have reached the end of the line, press the Enter key to continue entering the command on the next line. For example:

Appendix A. Basic Task Knowledge 137