XML GetSchema

[IxiRancid]

I would like to get a table schema from my DB2 server. The usual methods with Iseries Navigator don't work, so I resorted to XML GetSchema.

It actually works perfect, but I would need the Table's Field Descriptions in my XML Schema also!

 

Are there any other ways I could achieve this?

[Nerseus]

Normally you would use a DataAdapter and a DataSet, but there are many methods. Here's a code snippet to get the schema for a table named Customer:

// Assumes a using statement at the top:
// using System.Data.SqlClient;
SqlDataAdapter adapter = new SqlDataAdapter("SELECT TOP 1 * FROM Customer", "<connection string here>");
DataSet ds = new DataSet();
adapter.FillSchema(ds, SchemaType.Source, "Cust");

 

Note that the string "Cust" used in the FillSchema method will be the name of the table in the DataSet. The schema is based 100% on the SelectCommand. I've seen some people use "... WHERE 1 = 0" in place of the "TOP 1" to prevent any rows from being returned. You can use whatever you like.

 

If you need to actually get the data AND the schema, then use the DataAdapter's Fill method.

 

I've read articles that mention getting the schema through FillSchema is somewhat slow and shouldn't be used in production. I guess it depends on what you want the schema for...

 

-nerseus

[IxiRancid]

Actually that is what I already have, let me explain why I need this:

- the company where I work needs some kind of Technical documentation about our software and we were given the assignment of creating a Relation diagram with additional explanation of the tables and it's structures.

 

I would need the field description of each field in our tables:

filed name - type - description

CONO - INT - 'Company number'

CNME - CHAR(50) - ' Company name'

 

Here's how I make my XSD's and later XML's (ds being a filled DataSet)

 

swXMLschema = New StreamWriter(knjiznica & "_" & DB2file & ".xsd")

Dim srSchema As String = ds.GetXmlSchema

Dim srReplace1 As String

srReplace1 = srSchema.Replace("Table", DB2file)

srReplace1 = srReplace1.Replace("utf-16", "windows-1250")

swXMLschema.Write(srReplace1)

Me.TextBox1.Text = srReplace1

swXMLschema.Close()