Re: SQL Plotting

[Wesley M. <mo...@ch...>]

On Mon, 17 May 2004, Ethan Merritt wrote:

> On Monday 17 May 2004 04:58 pm, Wesley Morgan wrote:
> > I'm simply thinking that I would like to be able to execute something
> > like this...
> >
> > set dbserver 'localhost'
> > set dbname 'test'
> > set dbuser 'test'
> > plot 'select * from table' with lines
> > <ask for password if necessary>
> > <plot away>
>
> I'm lost. What is this snippet supposed to represent?
> Are these commands to gnuplot?

Yes, exactly.

> > As you see, I'm not looking for an interface TO gnuplot, the command
> > line works quite well for me. I'm more curious as to how difficult it
> > would be to add this functionality to gnuplot itself. It already
> > supports a tremendous range of output formats, so why not accept a few
> > more input methods?
>
> But isn't that just another pipe, or anyway a pair of pipes?
> What is different about this input to gnuplot that distinguishes it
> from any other input to gnuplot?

Well by "input" I meant data not commands.

> If I understand what you are trying to do, you should be able
> to send your commands *to* the database with shell escapes
> and read the output *from* the database via a pipe.
> Something more or less like:
>
> gnuplot> ! mkfifo ./database_out
> gnuplot> ! db 'select * from table' > ./database_out
> gnuplot> plot '< ./database_out' with lines

Yes, but isn't that much more complicated than simply gnuplot itself
supporting a direct connection to the db? :>


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