Language features, such as outer joins and scalar function calls, are commonly implemented by database systems. The syntax for these features is often database-specific, even when a standard syntax has been defined. JDBC defines escape sequences that contain the standard syntax for the following language features:
Date, time, and timestamp literals
Scalar functions such as numeric, string, and data type conversion functions
Outer joins
Escape characters for wildcards used in LIKE clauses
The escape sequence used by JDBC is:
{extension}
The escape sequence is recognized and parsed by the drivers, which replaces the escape sequences with data store-specific grammar.