Controls the following settings for the current connection:

    o  Whether the length of character string parameters, columns,
       and domains are interpreted as characters or octets

    o  Whether double quotation marks are interpreted as string
       literals or delimited identifiers

    o  Whether or not identifiers may be keywords

    o  Which views are read-only

    o  Whether columns with the DATE or CURRENT_TIMESTAMP data type
       are interpreted as VMS or SQL99 format

    o  Whether or not parameter names begin with a colon

    o  Whether or not the session character sets change depending on
       the dialect specified

    The DIALECT clause lets you specify the settings with one clause,
    instead of specifying each setting individually. Because the
    module processor processes the module clauses sequentially, the
    DIALECT clause can override the settings of clauses (for example,
    QUOTING RULES) specified before it or be overridden by clauses
    specified after it.

    The following statements are specific to the SQL92 and SQL99
    dialects:

    o  The default constraint evaluation time setting changes from
       DEFERRABLE to NOT DEFERRABLE.

    o  Conversions between character data types when storing data
       or retrieving data raise exceptions or warnings in certain
       situations.

    o  You can specify DECIMAL or NUMERIC for formal parameters
       in SQL modules, and declare host language parameters with
       packed decimal or signed numeric storage format. SQL generates
       an error message if you attempt to exceed the precision
       specified.

    o  The USER keyword specifies the current active user name for a
       request.

    o  A warning is generated when a null value is eliminated from a
       SET function.

    o  The WITH CHECK OPTION clause on views returns a discrete error
       code from an integrity constraint failure.

    o  An exception is generated with non-null terminated C strings.

    See the Oracle Rdb SQL Reference Manual for more information on
    the settings for each option of the DIALECT clause.