Command prompt utilities, some resources in one place.

Sometimes there is some confusion on the different Command Prompt utilities.

I will not go into detail on this, rather providing a collection of the online resources.

The short summary is this:

- ISQL is no longer supported, use SQLCMD

- ISQL uses DB-LIB (6.5 client level), some SQL 2000 features are not supported, doesn’t support UNICODE input files

- OSQL uses ODBC, supports UNICODE input files

- ISQLW is SQL Query Analyzer

- SQLCMD uses OLE DB

- SQLNCLI (SNAC / SQL Native Client) combines the OleDb and ODBC provider and has added functionality such as MARS and UDT

References for the above:

Command Prompt Utilities (SQL Server 2000) -> isql Utility

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa214007(SQL.80).aspx

Command Prompt Utilities (SQL Server 2000) -> osql Utility

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa214012.aspx

Command Prompt Utilities (SQL Server 2000) -> isqlw Utility

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa214005(SQL.80).aspx

SQL Server 2005 Books Online (September 2007) -> sqlcmd Utility

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms162773(SQL.90).aspx

SQL Server 2005 Books Online (September 2007) -> SQL Native Client Programming

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms130892(SQL.90).aspx

SQL Server 2005 Books Online (September 2007) -> Discontinued Database Engine Functionality in SQL Server 2005

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms144262(SQL.90).aspx

SQL Server 2008 Books Online (August 2008) -> Discontinued Database Engine Functionality in SQL Server 2008

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms144262.aspx

For protocol specific information, I can recommend the SQL Protocols blog:

https://blogs.msdn.com/sql_protocols/