Contents
Isok is run by using one of its functions. Of course the ISOK_RESULTS table may always be queried manually, but this does not discover any new problems.
All of the Isok functions are designed to be
used in the FROM clause of SELECT
statements, as if they were tables.
Indeed the functions look like tables to the
SELECT statement, tables that look exactly like
ISOK_RESULTS -- except that the Resolved column is missing.
The difference between querying on the
ISOK_RESULTS table directly and querying
using Isok's functions is that the functions
update the content of the ISOK_RESULTS
table by executing the the queries in
ISOK_QUERIES table. Also, the functions
never return rows where the underlying
ISOK_RESULTS row has a non-NULL
Resolved value or a
Deferred_To time and date
that has not yet been reached.
All timestamps, date plus time values, which Isok updates in the ISOK_QUERIES and ISOK_RESULTS tables are set to the date and time at which program execution started. So when, say, run_isok_queries(), is run, all of the new timestamp values in the ISOK_QUERIES and ISOK_RESULTS rows touched by the execution are identical.
Various Isok functions (or versions of the same function) are supplied to allow easy selection of which queries in which ISOK_QUERIES rows are to be executed, whether all or only some.
Note
As with a regular table, the order in which rows are returned by Isok's functions is unspecified. If you wish to ensure a specific ordering an ORDER BY clause must be used.
Page generated: 2025-06-02T22:25:00-05:00.