Firebird Documentation IndexFirebird 2.5 Language Ref. UpdateDDL statements → FILTER
Firebird Home Firebird Home Prev: EXTERNAL FUNCTIONFirebird Documentation IndexUp: DDL statementsNext: INDEX

FILTER

Table of Contents

DECLARE FILTER

DECLARE FILTER

Available in: DSQL, ESQL

Changed in: 2.0

Description: Makes a BLOB filter available to the database.

Syntax: 

DECLARE FILTER filtername
   INPUT_TYPE <sub_type> OUTPUT_TYPE <sub_type>
   ENTRY_POINT 'function_name' MODULE_NAME 'library_name'

<sub_type>  ::=  number | <mnemonic>
<mnemonic>  ::=  binary | text | blr | acl | ranges | summary | format
                 | transaction_description | external_file_description
                 | user_defined
  • In Firebird 2 and up, no two BLOB filters in a database may have the same combination of input and output type. Declaring a filter with an already existing input-output type combination will fail. Restoring pre-2.0 databases that contain such duplicate filters will also fail.

  • The possibility to indicate the BLOB types with their mnemonics instead of numbers was added in Firebird 2. The binary mnemonic for subtype 0 was also added in Firebird 2. The predefined mnemonics are case-insensitive.

Example: 

declare filter Funnel
  input_type blr output_type text
  entry_point 'blr2asc' module_name 'myfilterlib'

User-defined mnemonics: If you want to define mnemonics for your own BLOB subtypes, you can add them to the RDB$TYPES system table as shown below. Once committed, the mnemonics can be used in subsequent filter declarations.

insert into rdb$types (rdb$field_name, rdb$type, rdb$type_name)
  values ('RDB$FIELD_SUB_TYPE', -33, 'MIDI')

The value for rdb$field_name must always be 'RDB$FIELD_SUB_TYPE'. If you define your mnemonics in all-uppercase, you can use them case-insensitively and unquoted in your filter declarations.

Prev: EXTERNAL FUNCTIONFirebird Documentation IndexUp: DDL statementsNext: INDEX
Firebird Documentation IndexFirebird 2.5 Language Ref. UpdateDDL statements → FILTER