Sybase Tips

sp_helptext on sp_help

  use sybsystemprocs;
  sp_helptext sp_help;

Visual Basic ADO connection string

    Dim Conn As New ADODB.Connection
    Conn.CursorLocation = adUseClient ' <-- needed for return params
    Conn.Open "Provider=Sybase.ASEOLEDBProvider;Server Name=myserver.foo.com,1400;Initial Catalog=my_database;User Id=sa;Password="
    Conn.Execute ("Select @@version") ' Test to make sure the connection is ok

Java CallableStatement named parameters

You're trying to do something like:

    CallableStatement cs = conn.prepareCall("{?= call sp_help ?}");
    cs.setString("@objname", "sp_help");

and you get an exception like

java.lang.AbstractMethodError: com.sybase.jdbc2.jdbc.SybCallableStatement.setString(Ljava/lang/String;Ljava/lang/String;)V
	at ConnectionTest.testCallable(ConnectionTest.java:66)
	at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
	at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
	at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
	at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
	at junit.framework.TestCase.runTest(TestCase.java:154)
	at org.jmock.core.VerifyingTestCase.runBare(Unknown Source)
	at junit.framework.TestResult$1.protect(TestResult.java:106)
	at junit.framework.TestResult.runProtected(TestResult.java:124)
	at junit.framework.TestResult.run(TestResult.java:109)
	at junit.framework.TestCase.run(TestCase.java:118)
	at junit.framework.TestSuite.runTest(TestSuite.java:208)
	at junit.framework.TestSuite.run(TestSuite.java:203)
	at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.runTests(RemoteTestRunner.java:474)
	at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.run(RemoteTestRunner.java:342)
	at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.main(RemoteTestRunner.java:194)

This is life with Sybase. It doesn't matter if you use jconn2.jar, jconn3.jar, or even jTDS.jar. Maybe you could enhance jTDS.jar. If you do, please send me an email!