ADABAS provides extensive possibilities for obtaining information about the static and dynamic aspects of the database objects.
This is done using system tables which are provided in the form of views and which build the SQL catalog. These system tables can be accessed via SELECT statements. Descriptions of all currently defined database objects and information about their space requirements can be retrieved. Further system tables are offered, in addition, containing data obtained by monitoring the current database operation.
Special end user tools and development environments adapt themselves to the current database structure by accessing the SQL catalog and by using dynamic SQL statements. Their support therefore requires differently structured SQL catalogs for the different SQLMODEs. In SQLMODE ORACLE, for example, there are system table views for ORACLE7.