For information on how to use Ingres' SQL (Structured Query Language) commands, examine the Hypercard stack "Intro to SQL with Ingres", available on Sleek2:[SleekShare]:[SleekExchange]. Do not print out this stack! Use it interactively. The arrow keys move you to the next (previous) card.
The ISDB database contains data on a number of countries; the country abbreviations and full names are given in Ingres table ISDB_COUNTRIES. The contents of that table are:
AUS Australia
BEL Belgium
CAN Canada
DEU Germany
DNK Denmark
FIN Finland
FRA France
GBR United Kingdom
ITA Italy
JPN Japan
NLD Netherlands
NOR Norway
SWE Sweden
USA United States
The variables on which data are available are defined in Ingres table
ISDB_VARIABLES. The data must be retrieved using the abbreviations given
in this table. The contents of that table are:
EE Number of employees
ET Total employment
GDP Gross domestic product, current prices
GDPD Gross dom product, '85 prices, USD equiv
GDPV Gross domestic product, 1985 prices
IND
IT Gross fix cap formation, current prices
ITD Gr fix cap form, '85 prices, USD equiv
ITV Gr fix cap form, '85 prices
KTVD Gross cap stock, '85 prices, USD equiv
MGS Imports of goods, USD
OP Gross oper surplus / (GDP - Indir taxes)
RKMV (Machinery & Equipment) / Gr cap stock
WSSS Employee compensation, current prices
XGS Exports of goods, USD
The sectors for which data are available include a number of
"two-digit SIC" groupings as well as a number of aggregations. The sector
abbreviations and their definitions are given in Ingres table ISDB_SECTORS.
The contents of that table are:
AGR Agriculture
BMA Metal prod exc machinery & transport
BMI Basic metal products
CHE Chemicals
COM Communication
CST Construction
EGW Electricity, gas, water
FNI Finance, insurance, real estate
FNS Finance and insurance
FOD Food, beverages, tobacco
HOT Restaurants and hotels
MAI Agricultural and industrial machinery
MAN Manufacturing total
MEL Electrical goods
MEQ Machinery and equipment total
MID Mining and quarrying
MIO Office & D/P machinery, instruments
MNM Non-metallic mineral products
MOT Other manufactured products
MTR Transport equipment
OPR Other producers
PAP Paper, printing, publishing
PGS Producers of government services
RES Real estate
RET Wholesale & retail trade & hospitality
RWH Wholesale and retail trade
SOC Community, social, personnel services
TET Grand Total
TEX Textiles
TIN Total Industries
TRS Transport, storage, communication total
WOD Wood and products
The data themselves are stored in the fourth table, ISDB_DATA. This table contains over 220,000 rows, so make sure you extract a small subset of the
data. The columns of this table are:
COUNTRY
VARIABLE
SECTOR
YEAR
VALUE
Data may be available for 1960 through 1992, or for any set of years
therein. Zeroes should generally be taken as missing values.
Thus to retrieve data from the ISDB_DATA table you could $EDIT ISDB.REQ to
include the SQL statement:
select variable,year,country,value from isdb_data
where country in ('USA','GBR','DEU')
and sector = 'MAN'
and variable in ('GDP','GDPD')
and year between 1979 and 1992
order by variable,country,year
and then retrieve the data by using
$SQLBATCH_W ISDB.REQ ISDB.OUT OECD
The use of SQLBATCH_W (an Economics-group definition) rather than the standard SQLBATCH is necessitated by the scale of the data. If the output field width is not adjusted, very few digits of precision will be delivered for many of the ISDB variables. SQLBATCH_W(ide) adjusts the field width to ensure that the data values are reported in their entirety.
If you want to format the data for further use in a statistical package, or download them to a Mac package, use
$SQLC
to set up the data for either VAX (ASCII) or Mac (tab-delimited) format.