ODBC

Connecting to a database

Transaction isolation levels

Working with Long or Lob(CLob, BLob) data

Returning output parameters

Cancelling queries

Connection, command, parameter and field options

Getting native ODBC API

Getting native ODBC connection related handles

Getting native ODBC command related handles

Error handling

Special header files - Compile time

Connecting to a database

To connect to a database you should create a connection object and then connect it. A connection object is represented by SAConnection class. After the connection is created you need to connect it to ODBC server using SAConnection::Connect method

void Connect( const SAString &sDBString, const SAString &sUserID, const SAString &sPassword, SAClient_t eSAClient = SA_Client_NotSpecified );

with the following parameters:

sDBString.    Any valid ODBC connection string.
sUserID.    A string containing a user name to use when establishing the connection.
sPassword.    A string containing a password to use when establishing the connection.
eSAClient.    Optional. One of the following values from SAClient_t enum:

• SA_ODBC_Client    ODBC client.
• SA_Client_NotSpecified     Used by default if eSAClientparameter is omitted.  You can use this default value only if you have call SAConnection::setClient method with SA_ODBC_Client constant before.

The SQLAPI++ Library requires ODBC version 3.x or higher.

For more details see How To - Connecting to databases, SAConnection object, SAConnection::Connect.

Transaction isolation levels

SQL-92 defines four isolation levels, all of which are supported by SQLAPI++:

• Read uncommitted (the lowest level where transactions are isolated just enough to ensure that physically corrupt data is not read)
• Read committed
• Repeatable read
• Serializable (the highest level, where transactions are completely isolated from one another)

SQLAPI++ maps different isolation levels on ODBC server in the following way:

SA_ReadUncommitted = SQL_TXN_READ_UNCOMMITTED
SA_ReadCommitted = SQL_TXN_READ_COMMITTED
SA_RepeatableRead = SQL_TXN_REPEATABLE_READ
SA_Serializable = SQL_TXN_SERIALIZABLE

For more details see SAConnection::setIsolationLevel.

Working with Long or Lob(CLob, BLob) data

SQLAPI++ supports four types for working with Long or Lob(CLob, BLob) data:

Name	C enum constant
LongBinary	SA_dtLongBinary
LongChar	SA_dtLongChar
BLob (Binary Large object)	SA_dtBLob
CLob (Character Large object)	SA_dtCLob

SQLAPI++ maps data types to ODBC constants. Actual mapping from constant to SQL type is ODBC driver specific. The table below shows how SQLAPI++ data types correspond with ODBC constants:

SA_dtLongBinary <= > SQL_LONGVARBINARY
SA_dtLongChar <= > SQL_LONGVARCHAR
SA_dtBLob = > SQL_LONGVARBINARY
SA_dtCLob => SQL_LONGVARCHAR

For more details see How To - Working with Long or Lob(CLob, BLob) data

Returning output parameters

In ODBC processing output parameters depends on a driver.

If DBMS allows to return output parameters then SQLAPI++ stores the returned values of output parameters in the SAParam objects bound to those parameters. On some servers these returned values are not guaranteed to be set until all results returned by the procedure have been fetched (using SACommand::FetchNext method).

See ODBC driver documentation on output parameters availability on different DBMSs.

SQLAPI++ Library automatically creates SAParam object to represent procedure status return code or function return value (if any). You can refer to this SAParam object using SQLAPI++ predefined name "RETURN_VALUE".

For more details see SACommand::Execute, SAParam object, How To - Returning Output Parameters.

Cancelling queries

Using SACommand::Cancel method you can cancel the following types of processing on a statement:

• A function running asynchronously on the statement.
  
• A function running on the statement on another thread.

SQLAPI++ calls SQLCancel function to cancel a query. To get more details see SQLCancel function description in ODBC documentation.

For more details see SACommand::Cancel.

Connection, command, parameter and field options

A server specific option can relate to a connection, command,  parameter or field. We recommend you specify each option in an appropriate object, although it is possible to specify them in the parental object as well. In that case the option affects all the child objects.

A connection related option must be specified in a  SAConnection object.

A command related option may be specified in either SAConnection object or SACommand object. If it is specified in SAConnection object it affects all the commands on that connection.

A parameter related option may be specified in SAConnection object, SACommand object or SAParam object. If it is specified in SAConnection object it affects all the commands and therefore all the parameters on that connection. If it is specified in SACommand object it affects all the parameters on that command.

A field related option may be specified in SAConnection object, SACommand object or SAField object. If it is specified in SAConnection object it affects all the commands and therefore all the fields on that connection. If it is specified in SACommand object it affects all the fields on that command.

Specific options for ODBC:

For more details see SAConnection::setOption, SACommand::setOption, SAField::setOption, SAParam::setOption.

Getting native ODBC API

You can call client specific API functions which are not directly supported by SQLAPI++ Library. SAConnection::NativeAPI method returns a pointer to the set of native API functions available for ODBC . To use the database API directly you have to downcast this saAPI pointer to the appropriate type and use its implementation-specific members. The following table shows what type cast you have to make and what additional header file you have to include to work with ODBC API.

Type casting	Additional include file
Cast the result to class odbcAPI: saAPI *pResult = con.NativeAPI(); odbcAPI *p_odbcAPI = (odbcAPI *)pResult;	#include <odbcAPI.h>

To get more information about DBMS API functions see this DBMS specific documentation. 

For more details see SAConnection::NativeAPI.

Getting native ODBC connection related handles

You have to use native API handles when you want to call specific ODBC API functions which are not directly supported by the Library. API functions usually need to receive one or more active handles as a parameter(s). SAConnection::NativeHandles method returns a pointer to the set of native API connection related handles. To use API handles directly you have to downcast saConnectionHandles pointer to the appropriate type and use its implementation-specific members. The following table shows what type cast you have to make and what additional header file you have to include to work with specific ODBC API.

Type casting

Cast the result to class odbcConnectionHandles: #include <odbcAPI.h> saConnectionHandles *pResult = con.NativeHandles(); odbcConnectionHandles *p_odbcCH =                                 (odbcConnectionHandles *)pResult; Available handles: SQLHENV m_hevn ; SQLHDBC m_hdbc ;

To get more information about DBMS API functions and handles see this DBMS specific documentation. 

For more details see SAConnection::NativeHandles.

Getting native ODBC command related handles

You have to use native API handles when you want to call specific ODBC API functions which are not directly supported by the Library. API functions usually need to receive one or more active handles as a parameter(s). SACommand::NativeHandles method returns a pointer to the set of native API command related handles. To use API handles directly you have to downcast saCommandHandles pointer to the appropriate type and use its implementation-specific members. The following table shows what type cast you have to make and what additional header file you have to include to work with specific ODBC API.

Type casting

Cast the result to class odbcCommandHandles: #include <odbcAPI.h> saCommandHandles *pResult = cmd.NativeHandles(); odbcCommandHandles *p_odbcCH =                                 (odbcCommandHandles *)pResult; Available handles: SQLHSTMT m_hstmt ;

To get more information about DBMS API functions and handles see this DBMS specific documentation. 

For more details see SACommand::NativeHandles.

Error handling

When an error occurs inside SQLAPI++ Library it throws an exception of type SAException. SAException::ErrPos method gets an error position in SQL statement. In ODBC server SAException::ErrPos method returns -1 because ODBC does not support this function..

For more details see How To - Error handling, SAException object.

Special header files - Compile time

The header files are in the include subdirectory of SQLAPI++ distributions:
#include <SQLAPI.h> - main header, should be used whenever SQLAPI++ is used.
#include <odbcAPI.h> - ODBC API, should be included if direct ODBC API calls are required.

For more details see Online Documentation - Instructions for Compiling and Linking Applications with SQLAPI++ 

Problems and Questions

If you haven't found the answer to you questions or have some problems on using the Library, please, send e-mail to howto@sqlapi.com.