It is the nature of computer systems to collect data, but raw data is of very limited use. For example, a pile of invoices is raw data, and as such is somewhat useless, unless you happen to be interested in the detail or value of one particular invoice.

Beyond this trivial example, the raw data of the invoices has to be worked on, and manipulated to extract something of more value. Locked away within these invoices is a wealth of information, like total sales for each product, who purchased more than 10 of product "X" in a single invoice, a summary or purchases for customer "Y" and much, much more.

The difference between "data" and "information" is that information is immediately useful, succinct and pertinent to your current needs. If you will, "data" is a raw material, while "information" is a finished product.

The Stamina Query Language Interface is an information processor that operates on the raw data collected by the Stamina system. It does the same type of things you would do manually with your pile of invoices, sort, sifting and selecting information, but at computer speed.

You can interact with the RDBMS, via the Query Language, with a cut down version of English, which makes learning this "computer language" particularly easy.

The RDBMS stores raw information in files, which are similar in nature to the files you would keep in a filing cabinet. Each file can contain many similar records, with information stored on the computer equivalent of a standard form, like an invoice, where similar information is always stored in the same location on the form.

Just as a printed form would have labelled boxes telling you what information is to be stored in each blank space or field, so the RDBMS keeps a dictionary for each file that describes where each piece of information is stored.

As the Data Model is relational, the dictionary may also contain relationships that allow information from related files to be retrieved and referenced. For example, an invoice file can contain a customer code, which can then be used to look up the customer file to obtain, say, the customer’s name and address.

These files specific dictionary definitions can then be combined with some constant "words" within your available vocabulary to build a complete sentence, a query, to be processed by the system, such as:

SORT THE CUSTOMERS WITH A BALANCE > "$5000" BY SALESMAN SHOWING SALESMAN CUSTOMERS.NAME TELEPHONE.NUMBER TOTAL BALANCE LAST.PAYMENT.DATE

In this example, SORT is a constant word that tells the system what we want to do, while CUSTOMERS is the name of the file you want to extract information from. WITH precedes a selection criteria that has to be met for an individual record to be processed, and BALANCE is the name of specific field on the CUSTOMERS file, and BY tells the system how to SORT the records.

The rest of this query simply nominates additional fields specific to the CUSTOMER file that are to be shown on the resultant report! Simple, isn’t it?

You can also sample select records that meet certain criteria, and use this "select list" to process these records through normal Stamina processes and screen forms.

Of course you can store any query so that it can be repeated or modified as required, and accessed through the menu system for total security. In this way you can easily extend the normal Stamina reporting, if necessary, to meet your special requirements, or get that special one-off, vital piece of information.

Stamina really does provide a system that is limited only by your own imagination!

Click for Query Language System Flow Chart