A
abend
Abnormal end of task. Termination of a task prior to its completion because of an error condition that cannot be resolved by the recovery facilities during execution.
account
The distinct portion of a system account string, excluding the performance group designation. Accounts can be employed wherever a user object can be specified.
administrator
A special user responsible for allocating resources to a community of users.
AP
Application Processor
ANSI
American National Standards Institute. ANSI maintains a standard for SQL. For information about Teradata compliance with ANSI SQL, see SQL Fundamentals (B035‑1141).
API
Application Program Interface, which is a set of calling conventions by which an application accesses an operating system and other services. An API is defined in the source code and provides a level of abstraction between an application and the kernel (or other privileged utilities) to ensure the portability of the code.
An API can also provide an interface between a high-level language and lower-level utilities and services written without consideration for the calling conventions supported by compiled languages. In this case, the API can translate the parameter lists from one format to another and the interpret call-by-value and call-by-reference arguments in one or both directions.
APRC
Application Processor Reset Containment
ASCII
American Standard Code for Information Interchange, a character set used primarily on personal computers.
B
BLOB
Binary large object, which is a large database object (up to 2 GB) that doesn’t require character set conversion, including MIDI, MP3, PDF, graphics, and more.
C
Call-Level Interface Version 2 (CLIv2)
A collection of callable service routines that provide an interface between an application and the MTDP (for network-attached clients) or TDP (for mainframe-attached). CLI builds parcels that are sent to Teradata Database and provides the application with a pointer to each of the parcels returned from Teradata Database.
CASE
Computer-Aided Software Engineering
mainframe-attached
A mainframe computer that communicates with a server (for example, Teradata Database) through a channel driver.
character set
A grouping of alphanumeric and special characters used by computer systems to support user languages and applications. Various character sets have been codified by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
CICS
Customer Information Control System
client
A computer that can access the Teradata Database.
CLIv2so
Call-Level Interface Version 2 Shared Object, which is the program that installs the CLI libraries required by other utilities. When CLIv2so submits a request to Teradata Database, CLI Library components transform the request into Teradata Database formats. The CLI Library sends requests to, and receives responses from, Teradata Database over a network.
CLOB
Character large object, which is a large character-based (such as HTML, RTF) database object up to 2 GB.
COBOL
Common Business-Oriented Language
column
In the relational model of Teradata SQL, databases consist of one or more tables. In turn, each table consists of fields, organized into one or more columns by zero or more rows. All of the fields of a given column share the same attributes.
CPU
Central processing unit
D
database
A related set of tables that share a common space allocation and owner. A collection of objects that provide a logical grouping for information. The objects include tables, views, macros, triggers, and stored procedures.
Data Definition Language (DDL)
In Teradata SQL, the statements and facilities that manipulate database structures (such as CREATE, MODIFY, DROP, GRANT, REVOKE, and GIVE) and the Data Dictionary information kept about those structures.
DBA
Database administrator
DDL
Data definition language, which supports manipulating database structures and the Data Dictionary information kept about these structures.
delimiter
In Teradata SQL, a punctuation mark or other special symbol that separates clauses in a Teradata SQL statement or separates one Teradata SQL statement from another.
EBCDIC
Extended binary coded decimal interchange code, which is an IBM code that uses 8 bits to represent 256 possible characters. It is used primarily in IBM mainframes, whereas personal computers use ASCII.
EUC
Extended UNIX Code. For Japanese and Traditional-Chinese, EUC defines a set of encoding rules that can support from 1 to 4 character sets.
extract
The copying of a subset of data from a source to a target environment.
exit routine
Specifies a predefined action to be performed whenever certain significant events occur during a job.
F
field
The basic unit of information stored in Teradata Database. A field is either null, or has a single numeric or string value.
FIPS
Federal Information Processing Standards
I
IPT
I/Os per transaction
in-doubt
A transaction in process on two or more independent computer processing systems when an interruption of service occurs on one or more of the systems. The transaction is said to be in doubt because it is not known whether the transaction is successfully processed on all of the systems.
I/O
Input/output
ISO
International Standards Organization
J
JCL
Job Control Language is a language for describing jobs (units of work) to z/OS and VSE operating systems (OSs), which run on IBM z800/900 large server (mainframe) computers. These OSs allocate their time and space resources among the total number of jobs started in a computer. Jobs then break down into job steps. All the statements required to run a particular program constitute a job step. Jobs are background (sometimes called batch) units of work that run without user interaction (for example, print jobs). The OS manages interactive (foreground) user requests that initiate units of work. In general, foreground work is given priority over background work.
JIS
Japanese Industrial Standards specify the standards for industrial activities in Japan. The standardization process is published through Japanese Standards Association.
L
LOB
Large object, which is a database object that is up to 2 gigabytes. LOBs can be character-based (CLOBs) or binary-based (BLOBs).
log
A file that records events. Many programs produce log files. Log files can help determine what happened during an processing failure. Log files have the extension “.log”.
M
macro
A file that is created and stored on Teradata Database, and executed in response to a Teradata SQL EXECUTE statement
MTDP
Micro Teradata Director Program, which is a library of routines that implement the session layer on the workstation. MTDP is the interface between CLI and Teradata Database.
MPP
Massively parallel processing
MVS (Multiple Virtual Storage)
One of the primary operating systems for large IBM computers.
N
name
A word supplied by a user that refers to an object, such as a column, database, macro, table, user, or view.
null
The absence of a value for a field.
P
parameter
A variable name in a macro for which an argument value is substituted when the macro is executed.
physical action
A basic action type, such as <Send a Page>, <Send an E-Mail>, etc. Physical actions must be encapsulated by logical actions in order to be used in an alert policy.
procedure
Short name for Teradata stored procedure. Teradata provides Stored Procedural Language (SPL) to create stored procedures. A stored procedure contains SQL to access data from within Teradata and SPL to control the execution of the SQL.
protocol
The rules for the format, sequence, and relative timing of messages exchanged on a network.
R
request
In host software, a message sent from an application program to the Teradata Database.
result
The information returned to a user to satisfy a request made of the Teradata Database.
row
Whether null or not, a row represents one entry under each column in a table. The row is the smallest unit of information operated on by data manipulation statements.
S
server
A computer system running Teradata Database. Typically, a Teradata Database server has multiple nodes, which can include both TPA and non-TPA nodes. All nodes of the server are connected through the Teradata BYNET or other similar interconnect.
session
A session begins when a user logs on to Teradata Database and ends when the user logs off. Also called a Teradata Database session.
SMP
Symmetric multi-processing
statement
A request for processing by Teradata Database that consists of a keyword verb, optional phrases, and operands, and that is processed as a single entity.
statistics
The details of a process used to collect, analyze, and transform the database objects used by a given query.
stored procedure
A combination of SQL statements and control and conditional handling statements that run using a single call statement.
T
table
A set of one or more columns with zero or more rows that consist of fields of related information.
TCP/IP
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol.
TDPID
Teradata Director Program Identifier, which is the name of the Teradata Database being accessed.
TDP
Teradata Director Program, which provides a high-performance interface for messages communicated between the client and the Teradata system.
test system
A Teradata Database where you want to import Optimizer-specific information to emulate a target system and create new queries or test new features.
title
In Teradata SQL, a string used as a column heading in a report. By default, the title is the column name, but a title can also be explicitly declared by a TITLE phrase.
TPA
Trusted parallel application
TOS
Teradata operating system
transaction
A set of Teradata SQL statements performed as a unit. Either all of the statements are executed normally, or else any changes made during the transaction are backed out and the remainder of the statements in the transaction are not executed. Teradata Database supports both ANSI and Teradata transaction semantics.
trigger
One or more Teradata SQL statements associated with a table and executed when specified conditions are met.
two-phase commit
The process by which a relational database ensures that distributed transactions are performed in an orderly manner. Transactions are terminated by either committing them or rolling them back.
type
An attribute of a column that specifies the representation of data values for fields in that column. Teradata SQL data types include numerics and strings.
U
UDF
User-defined functions
Unicode®
A fixed-width (16 bits) encoding of virtually all characters present in all languages in the world.
user
In Teradata SQL, a database associated with a person who uses Teradata Database. The database stores the person‘s private information and accesses other Teradata Databases.
user
A database associated with a person who uses Teradata Database. The database stores the person‘s private information and accesses other Teradata Databases.
UTF-8
In simple terms, UTF-8 is an 8 bit encoding of 16 bit Unicode® to achieve an international character representation.
In more technical terms, in UTF-8, characters are encoded using sequences of 1 to 6 octets. The only octet of a sequence of one has the higher-order bit set to 0, the remaining 7 bits are used to encode the character value. UTF-8 uses all bits of an octet, but has the quality of preserving the full US-ASCII range. The UTF-8 encoding of Unicode® and UCS avoids the problems of fixed-length Unicode® encodings because an ASCII file encoded in UTF is exactly same as the original ASCII file and all non-ASCII characters are guaranteed to have the most significant bit set (bit 0x80). This means that normal tools for text searching work as expected.
UTF-16
A 16-bit Unicode® translation format.
V
varbyte
A data type that represents a variable-length binary string.
varchar
A data type that represents a variable-length non-numeric character.
vargraphic
A data type that represents a variable-length string of characters.
view
An alternate way of organizing and presenting information in Teradata Database. A view, like a table, has rows and columns; however, the rows and columns of a view are not directly stored by Teradata Database, rather they are derived from the rows and columns of tables (or other views).
Z
z/OS
One of the primary operating systems for large IBM computers.
z/VM (Virtual Machine)
One of the primary operating systems for large IBM computers.