# ij commands

`ij` accepts several commands to control its use of JDBC.

It recognizes a semicolon as the end of an `ij` or SQL command; it treats semicolons within SQL comments, strings, and delimited identifiers as part of those constructs, not as the end of the command. A semicolon is required at the end of an `ij` or SQL statement.

All `ij` commands, identifiers, and keywords are case-insensitive.

Commands can span multiple lines without any special escaping for the ends of lines. This means that if a string spans a line, the new lines will appear in the value in the string.

`ij` treats any command that it does not recognize as an SQL command to be passed to the underlying connection, so syntactic errors in `ij` commands will cause them to be handed to the SQL engine and will probably result in SQL parsing errors.

- Conventions for ij examples
  Examples in this document show input from the keyboard or a file in bold text and console output from the command prompt or the ij application in regular text.
- ij SQL command behavior
  Any commands other than those documented in the ij command reference are handed to the current connection to execute directly.

Parent topic: ij commands and errors reference
Related concepts
ij errors
Related reference
Absolute command
After Last command
Async command
Autocommit command
Before First command
Close command
Commit command
Connect command
Describe command
Disconnect command
Driver command
Elapsedtime command
Execute command
Exit command
First command
Get Cursor command
Get Scroll Insensitive Cursor command
Help command
HoldForConnection command
Last command
LocalizedDisplay command
MaximumDisplayWidth command
Next command
NoHoldForConnection command
Prepare command
Previous command
Protocol command
Readonly command
Relative command
Remove command
Rollback command
Run command
Set Connection command
Show command
Wait For command
Syntax for comments in ij commands
Syntax for identifiers in ij commands
Syntax for strings in ij commands