readme.md

sqr2sql

This does a rough and imperfect job of converting SQR programs to Oracle PL/SQL. Honestly, I started this after a month of experience with either language as an aid for my work. What this means is:

• I have a limited knowledge of both PL/SQL and SQR.
• I am learning on-the-job, so my style choices are influenced by the source code that I am working with at work. For example: Hard tabs. I don't like it, but that's the style choice.
  • I should also note that a large body of the programs I am working on were made when SQR was new, and so there are features that I probably don't know about.
  • As well, when we switched over to PL/SQL after support for SQR was dropped, it was a rush to just find a way that works and get it done. I have been "discovering" features that were never taken advantage of, and there are a lot more that I don't know about.

All in all, it's not pretty, but these programs have been a huge help.

How To Use

This program is written in Python3, so you'll want Python3. Once you have that, the syntax is pretty straight-forward:

python3 r2l.py infile1 outfile1 [infile2 outfile2 ...]

For example, if I had foo.sqr and I am converting it to foo.sql, I use:

python3 r2l.py foo.sqr foo.sql

It might also be helpful to pass it through indent.py, so combined:

# convert foo.sqr to foo.sql
python3 r2l.py foo.sqr foo.sql

# indent foo.sql and store the result back to foo.sql
python3 indent.py foo.sql foo.sql

Note that indent.py has a rough time with SQL queries that contain more than one nested SELECT (it basically keeps indenting for each one).

Issues

• print statements are not converted. I am still working on a way to get that to work well. I'd have to handle break conditions and the complicated cursor movements. Honestly, I might never add this support, but there is print.py which might be helpful for manually converting blocks of print statements :)

• display commands are just commented out. In the future, I should add code to use DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT() and DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE().

• In SQR, you can have a SQL SELECT query and directly reference the columns in other scopes. This is generally poorly supported as I don't have any code that analyzes where sub-procedures are called from and whose &my_col it needs.

  • Helpfully, I do have these named with a prefix of col_, so you can detangle for yourself where it comes from.

• move just assumes that it is formatting to a string (for now) and that it is a valid to_char() format.

• Conditions that span multiple lines for If statements will not convert properly. Basically, this program just appends a THEN to the line that the IF is on.

  • Same with other conditions, like WHILE conditions.

Future

In the future, if I am motivated enough and have the free time, I want to implement an actual parser for the conversions. I have a lot of experience with a creating parsers, so I know it'll be tedious and challenging, but it will greatly improve conversion.

• Update: I've been working on this every so often, and it is indeed tedious as h*ck.

Uses

I wrote this to facilitate the process of converting old SQR programs to Oracle PL/SQL for work. Some of the style is influenced by recommendations from my coworkers (I am still quite new and impressionable), so I don't know if it is standard or not.

As a first pass, I pass the SQR program through this converter. Then I manually go through the PL/SQL code to clean it up.

Tools

• Included are:

  • r2l.py is the main program for converting.

  • print.py can take a file of print statements and attempts to convert them into suitable PL/SQL. You'll need to modify the source code for print.py in order to modify the template strings, put and putline. The program uses these templates, replacing {} with a string. For example: put = "utl_file.put(my_file, {});\n" putline = "utl_file.put_line(my_file, {});\n"

    • put is a template for placing a string without appending a newline.
    • putline is a template for placing a string and then appending a newline.
    • print.py takes the same inputs as r2l.py. It is by no means perfect, and may be buggy, but it is quite helpful.

  • print2.py converts print statements differently, using the function f_overstr to simplify converting print statements. It's less buggy than print.py but does require the included f_overstr.sql. I don't know the jargon, I think it's something like "being part of the database schema" or something? I genuinely don't know. Please correct this if you know.

  • f_overstr.sql is a helper function used in the output of print2.py. It takes two strings and overwrites one on top of the other.

  • indent.py reads PL/SQL code and tries to indent it in a helpful way. It also collapses occurrences of ELSE followed by IF to ELSIF.

  • procfinder.py is just a tool that locates PL/SQL procedures and generates declaration statements. I just find this useful for PL/SQL programming in general. It breaks with functions though.

  • psprint.py converts PDF graphics commands to PL/SQL command using the pz_ps package.

print.py and print2.py

print.py and print2.py take an input file of SQR print statements and either print the converted version to the console, or writes them out to a file. For example, here is a file with some SQR:

print 'Howdy, y''all! My SSN is ' (+2,1)
print $ssn (0) edit xxx-xx-xxxx

print 'My name is ' (+1,1)
print 'Zeda' (0, 30, 10)
print 'Thomas' (0, 40)

print.py returns:

utl_file.put_line(my_file, '');

utl_file.put_line(my_file, 'Howdy, y''all! My SSN is ' || replace(to_char(ssn, 'FM000,00,0000'), ',', '-'));

utl_file.put(my_file, rpad('My name is ', 29));
utl_file.put(my_file, rpad('Zeda', 10));
utl_file.put_line(my_file, 'Thomas');

And print2.py returns:

line := ''
utl_file.put_line(my_file, line);

line := 'Howdy, y''all! My SSN is ' || replace(to_char(ssn, 'FM000,00,0000'), ',', '-');
utl_file.put_line(my_file, line);

line := 'My name is ';
line := f_overstr(line, 'Zeda', 30, width=>10);
line := f_overstr(line, 'Thomas', 40);
utl_file.put_line(my_file, line);

LEGAL

License