Database access is an important part of forms applications. Applications display data retrieved from the database on the form and, for multiple rows, allow the user to scroll through the rows of data, displaying each row in the window.

4GL database access statements provide virtually the full power of the Ingres query language. In most cases, there is no difference between the syntax of a query language statement and the statement's corresponding 4GL version. In 4GL, you use these SQL statements to query the database:

These statements enable you to retrieve data, append rows to tables, update rows in tables, and delete information that is no longer needed.

The following section introduces these statements. For more information, see the appropriate section in 4GL Statement Glossary, and the SQL Reference Guide.