Interviewers often ask can you connect C/C++ with database or not?
It is tricky for those who haven't done it before.
But the answer is YES. We can connect it using a language Pro *C (or simply pro-C)
Here is the tutorial for doing it.
Overview
Embedded SQL is a method of combining the computing power of a high-level language like C/C++ and the database manipulation capabilities of SQL. It allows you to execute any SQL statement from an application program. Oracle's embedded SQL environment is called Pro*C.A Pro*C program is compiled in two steps. First, the Pro*C precompiler recognizes the SQL statements embedded in the program, and replaces them with appropriate calls to the functions in the SQL runtime library. The output is pure C/C++ code with all the pure C/C++ portions intact. Then, a regular C/C++ compiler is used to compile the code and produces the executable.
Pro*C Syntax
SQL
All SQL statements need to start with EXEC SQL and end with a semicolon ";". You can place the SQL statements anywhere within a C/C++ block, with the restriction that the declarative statements do not come after the executable statements. As an example: {
int a;
/* ... */
EXEC SQL SELECT salary INTO :a
FROM Employee
WHERE SSN=876543210;
/* ... */
printf("The salary is %d\n", a);
/* ... */
}
Preprocessor Directives
The C/C++ preprocessor directives that work with Pro*C are #include and #if. Pro*C does not recognize #define. For example, the following code is invalid:#define THE_SSN 876543210 /* ... */ EXEC SQL SELECT salary INTO :a FROM Employee WHERE SSN = THE_SSN; /* INVALID */
Statement Labels
You can connect C/C++ labels with SQL as in:EXEC SQL WHENEVER SQLERROR GOTO error_in_SQL; /* ... */ error_in_SQL: /* do error handling */
Host Variables
Basics
Host variables are the key to the communication between the host program and the database. A host variable expression must resolve to an lvalue (i.e., it can be assigned). You can declare host variables according to C syntax, as you declare regular C variables. The host variable declarations can be placed wherever C variable declarations can be placed. The C datatypes that can be used with Oracle include:- char
- char[n]
- int
- short
- long
- float
- double
- VARCHAR[n] - This is a psuedo-type recognized by the Pro*C precompiler. It is used to represent blank-padded, variable-length strings. Pro*C precompiler will convert it into a structure with a 2-byte length field and a n-byte character array.
int deptnos[3] = { 000, 111, 222 };
int get_deptno() { return deptnos[2]; }
int *get_deptnoptr() { return &(deptnos[2]); }
int main() {
int x; char *y; int z;
/* ... */
EXEC SQL INSERT INTO emp(empno, ename, deptno)
VALUES(:x, :y, :z); /* LEGAL */
EXEC SQL INSERT INTO emp(empno, ename, deptno)
VALUES(:x + 1, /* LEGAL: the reference is to x */
'Big Shot', /* LEGAL: but not really a host var */
:deptnos[2]); /* LEGAL: array element is fine */
EXEC SQL INSERT INTO emp(empno, ename, deptno)
VALUES(:x, :y,
:(*(deptnos+2))); /* ILLEGAL: although it has an
lvalue */
EXEC SQL INSERT INTO emp(empno, ename, deptno)
VALUES(:x, :y,
:get_deptno()); /* ILLEGAL: no function calls */
EXEC SQL INSERT INTO emp(empno, ename, deptno)
VALUES(:x, :y,
:(*get_depnoptr())); /* ILLEGAL: although it has an lvalue */
/* ... */
}
Pointers
You can define pointers using the regular C syntax, and use them in embedded SQL statements. As usual, prefix them with a colon:int *x; /* ... */ EXEC SQL SELECT xyz INTO :x FROM ...;The result of this SELECT statement will be written into *x, not x.
Structures
Structures can be used as host variables, as illustrated in the following example: typedef struct {
char name[21]; /* one greater than column length; for '\0' */
int SSN;
} Emp;
/* ... */
Emp bigshot;
/* ... */
EXEC SQL INSERT INTO emp (ename, eSSN)
VALUES (:bigshot);
Arrays
Host arrays can be used in the following way:int emp_number[50]; char name[50][11]; /* ... */ EXEC SQL INSERT INTO emp(emp_number, name) VALUES (:emp_number, :emp_name);which will insert all the 50 tuples in one go.Arrays can only be single dimensional. The example char name[50][11] would seem to contradict that rule. However, Pro*C actually considers name a one-dimensional array of strings rather than a two-dimensional array of characters. You can also have arrays of structures.
When using arrays to store the results of a query, if the size of the host array (say n) is smaller than the actual number of tuples returned by the query, then only the first n result tuples will be entered into the host array.
Indicator Variables
Indicator variables are essentially "NULL flags" attached to host variables. You can associate every host variable with an optional indicator variable. An indicator variable must be defined as a 2-byte integer (using the typeshort) and, in SQL statements, must be prefixed by a colon and immediately follow its host variable. Or, you may use the keyword INDICATOR in between the host variable and indicator variable. Here is an example:short indicator_var; EXEC SQL SELECT xyz INTO :host_var:indicator_var FROM ...; /* ... */ EXEC SQL INSERT INTO R VALUES(:host_var INDICATOR :indicator_var, ...);You can use indicator variables in the INTO clause of a SELECT statement to detect NULL's or truncated values in the output host variables. The values Oracle can assign to an indicator variable have the following meanings:
| -1 | The column value is NULL, so the value of the host variable is indeterminate. |
| 0 | Oracle assigned an intact column value to the host variable. |
| >0 | Oracle assigned a truncated column value to the host variable. The integer returned by the indicator variable is the original length of the column value. |
| -2 | Oracle assigned a truncated column variable to the host variable, but the original column value could not be determined. |
| -1 | Oracle will assign a NULL to the column, ignoring the value of the host variable. |
| >=0 | Oracle will assign the value of the host variable to the column. |
Datatype Equivalencing
Oracle recognizes two kinds of datatypes: internal and external. Internal datatypes specify how Oracle stores column values in database tables. External datatypes specify the formats used to store values in input and output host variables. At precompile time, a default Oracle external datatype is assigned to each host variable. Datatype equivalencing allows you to override this default equivalencing and lets you control the way Oracle interprets the input data and formats the output data.The equivalencing can be done on a variable-by-variable basis using the VAR statement. The syntax is:EXEC SQL VAR <host_var> IS <type_name> [ (<length>) ];For example, suppose you want to select employee names from the emp table, and then pass them to a routine that expects C-style '\0'-terminated strings. You need not explicitly '\0'-terminate the names yourself. Simply equivalence a host variable to the STRING external datatype, as follows:
char emp_name[21]; EXEC SQL VAR emp_name IS STRING(21);The length of the ename column in the emp table is 20 characters, so you allot emp_name 21 characters to accommodate the '\0'-terminator. STRING is an Oracle external datatype specifically designed to interface with C-style strings. When you select a value from the ename column into emp_name, Oracle will automatically '\0'-terminate the value for you.You can also equivalence user-defined datatypes to Oracle external datatypes using the TYPE statement. The syntax is:
EXEC SQL TYPE <user_type> IS <type_name> [ (<length>) ] [REFERENCE];You can declare a user-defined type to be a pointer, either explicitly, as a pointer to a scalar or structure, or implicitly as an array, and then use this type in a TYPE statement. In these cases, you need to use the REFERENCEclause at the end of the statement, as shown below:
typedef unsigned char *my_raw; EXEC SQL TYPE my_raw IS VARRAW(4000) REFERENCE; my_raw buffer; /* ... */ buffer = malloc(4004);Here we allocated more memory than the type length (4000) because the precompiler also returns the length, and may add padding after the length in order to meet the alignment requirement on your system.
Dynamic SQL
While embedded SQL is fine for fixed applications, sometimes it is important for a program to dynamically create entire SQL statements. With dynamic SQL, a statement stored in a string variable can be issued. PREPAREturns a character string into a SQL statement, and EXECUTE executes that statement. Consider the following example.char *s = "INSERT INTO emp VALUES(1234, 'jon', 3)"; EXEC SQL PREPARE q FROM :s; EXEC SQL EXECUTE q;Alternatively, PREPARE and EXECUTE may be combined into one statement:
char *s = "INSERT INTO emp VALUES(1234, 'jon', 3)"; EXEC SQL EXECUTE IMMEDIATE :s;
TransactionsOracle PRO*C supports transactions as defined by the SQL standard. A transaction is a sequence of SQL statements that Oracle treats as a single unit of work. A transaction begins at your first SQL statement. A transaction ends when you issue "EXEC SQL COMMIT" (to make permanent any database changes during the current transaction) or "EXEC SQL ROLLBACK" (to undo any changes since the current transaction began). After the current transaction ends with your COMMIT or ROLLBACK statement, the next executable SQL statement will automatically begin a new transaction. If your program exits without calling EXEC SQL COMMIT, all database changes will be discarded.
Error HandlingAfter each executable SQL statement, your program can find the status of execution either by explicit checking of SQLCA, or by implicit checking using the WHENEVER statement. These two ways are covered in details below.
SQLCA
SQLCA (SQL Communications Area) is used to detect errors and status changes in your program. This structure contains components that are filled in by Oracle at runtime after every executable SQL statement.To use SQLCA you need to include the header file sqlca.h using the #include directive. In case you need to include sqlca.h at many places, you need to first undefine the macro SQLCA with #undef SQLCA. The relevant chunk of sqlca.h follows:#ifndef SQLCA
#define SQLCA 1
struct sqlca {
/* ub1 */ char sqlcaid[8];
/* b4 */ long sqlabc;
/* b4 */ long sqlcode;
struct {
/* ub2 */ unsigned short sqlerrml;
/* ub1 */ char sqlerrmc[70];
} sqlerrm;
/* ub1 */ char sqlerrp[8];
/* b4 */ long sqlerrd[6];
/* ub1 */ char sqlwarn[8];
/* ub1 */ char sqlext[8];
};
/* ... */
The fields in sqlca have the following meaning: | sqlcaid | This string component is initialized to "SQLCA" to identify the SQL Communications Area. | ||||||||||||||||
| sqlcabc | This integer component holds the length, in bytes, of the SQLCA structure. | ||||||||||||||||
| sqlcode | This integer component holds the status code of the most recently executed SQL statement:
| ||||||||||||||||
| sqlerrm | This embedded structure contains the following two components:
| ||||||||||||||||
| sqlerrp | Reserved for future use. | ||||||||||||||||
| sqlerrd | This array of binary integers has six elements:
| ||||||||||||||||
| sqlwarn | This array of single characters has eight elements used as warning flags. Oracle sets a flag by assigning to it the character 'W'.
| ||||||||||||||||
| sqlext | Reserved for future use. |
void sqlglm(char *msg_buf, size_t *buf_size, size_t *msg_length);where msg_buf is the character buffer in which you want Oracle to store the error message; buf_size specifies the size of msg_buf in bytes; Oracle stores the actual length of the error message in *msg_length. The maximum length of an Oracle error message is 512 bytes.
WHENEVER Statement
This statement allows you to do automatic error checking and handling. The syntax is:EXEC SQL WHENEVER <condition> <action>;Oracle automatically checks SQLCA for <condition>, and if such condition is detected, your program will automatically perform <action>.<condition> can be any of the following:
- SQLWARNING - sqlwarn[0] is set because Oracle returned a warning
- SQLERROR - sqlcode is negative because Oracle returned an error
- NOT FOUND - sqlcode is positive because Oracle could not find a row that meets your WHERE condition, or a SELECT INTO or FETCH returned no rows
- CONTINUE - Program will try to continue to run with the next statement if possible
- DO - Program transfers control to an error handling function
- GOTO <label> - Program branches to a labeled statement
- STOP - Program exits with an exit() call, and uncommitted work is rolled back
EXEC SQL WHENEVER SQLWARNING DO print_warning_msg(); EXEC SQL WHENEVER NOT FOUND GOTO handle_empty;Here is a more concrete example:
/* code to find student name given id */
/* ... */
for (;;) {
printf("Give student id number : ");
scanf("%d", &id);
EXEC SQL WHENEVER NOT FOUND GOTO notfound;
EXEC SQL SELECT studentname INTO :st_name
FROM student
WHERE studentid = :id;
printf("Name of student is %s.\n", st_name);
continue;
notfound:
printf("No record exists for id %d!\n", id);
}
/* ... */
Note that the WHENEVER statement does not follow regular C scoping rules. Scoping is valid for the entire program. For example, if you have the following statement somewhere in your program (such as before a loop):EXEC SQL WHENEVER NOT FOUND DO break;All SQL statements that occur after this line in the file would be affected. Make sure you use the following line to cancel the effect of WHENEVER when it is no longer needed (such as after your loop):
EXEC SQL WHENEVER NOT FOUND CONTINUE;
Demo Programs
Note: The demo programs will create and use four tables named DEPT, EMP, PAY1, and PAY2. Be careful if any table in your database happens to have the same name!Several demo programs are available in /afs/ir/class/cs145/code/proc on the leland system. They are named sample*.pc (for C users) and cppdemo*.pc (for C++ users). ".pc" is the extension for Pro*C code. Do not copy these files manually, since there are a couple of customizations to do. To download and customize the demo programs, follow the instructions below:- Make sure that you have run source /afs/ir/class/cs145/all.env
- In your home directory, run load_samples <db_username> <db_passwd> <sample_dir>, where <sample_dir> is the name of the directory where you wish to put demo programs (e.g., load_samples sally etaoinshrdlu cs145_samples)
- cd <sample_dir>
- Run make samples (or make cppsamples for C++) to compile all demo programs
For Step (4), you can also compile each sample program separately. For example, make sample1 compiles sample1.pc alone. The compilation process actually has two phases:
- proc iname=sample1.pc
- cc <a_number_of_flags_here> sample1.c
converts the embedded SQL code to corresponding library calls and outputs sample1.c
generates the executable sample1
CREATE TABLE DEPT (DEPTNO NUMBER(2) NOT NULL, DNAME VARCHAR2(14), LOC VARCHAR2(13)); CREATE TABLE EMP (EMPNO NUMBER(4) NOT NULL, ENAME VARCHAR2(10), JOB VARCHAR2(9), MGR NUMBER(4), HIREDATE DATE, SAL NUMBER(7, 2), COMM NUMBER(7, 2), DEPTNO NUMBER(2)); CREATE TABLE PAY1 (ENAME VARCHAR2(10), SAL NUMBER(7, 2)); CREATE TABLE PAY2 (ENAME VARCHAR2(10), SAL NUMBER(7, 2));These tables are created automatically when you run load_samples in Step (2). A few tuples are also inserted. You may like to browse the tables before running the samples on them. You can also play with them as you like (e.g., inserting, deleting, or updating tuples). These tables will be dropped automatically when you run clean_samples. Note:clean_samples also wipes out the entire <sample_dir>; make sure you move your own files to some other place before running this command!You should take a look at the sample source code before running it. The comments at the top describe what the program does. For example, sample1 takes an employee's EMPNO and retrieve the name, salary, and commission for that employee from the table EMP.
You are supposed to study the sample source code and learn the following:
- How to connect to Oracle from the host program
- How to embed SQL in C/C++
- How to use cursors
- How to use host variables to communicate with the database
- How to use WHENEVER to take different actions on error messages.
- How to use indicator variables to detect NULL's in the output
C++ Users
To get the precompiler to generate appropriate C++ code, you need to be aware of the following issues:- Code emission by precompiler. To get C++ code, you need to set the option CODE=CPP while executing proc. C users need not worry about this option; the default caters to their needs.
- Parsing capability. The PARSE option of proc may take the following values:
- PARSE=NONE. C preprocessor directives are understood only inside a declare section, and all host variables need to be declared inside a declare section.
- PARSE=PARTIAL. C preprocessor directives are understood; however, all host variables need to be declared inside a declare section.
- PARSE=FULL. C preprocessor directives are understood and host variables can be declared anywhere. This is the default when CODE is anything other than CPP; it is an error to specify PARSE=FULL withCODE=CPP.
- So, C++ users must specify PARSE=NONE or PARSE=PARTIAL. They therefore lose the freedom to declare host variables anywhere in the code. Rather, the host variables must be encapsulated in declare sections as follows:
EXEC SQL BEGIN DECLARE SECTION; // declarations... EXEC SQL END DECLARE SECTION;You need to follow this routine for declaring the host and indicator variables at all the places you do so.
- File extension. You need to specify the option CPP_SUFFIX=cc or CPP_SUFFIX=C.
- Location of header files. By default, proc searches for header files like stdio.h in standard locations. However, C++ has its own header files, such as iostream.h, located elsewhere. So you need to use theSYS_INCLUDE option to specify the paths that proc should search for header files.
List of Embedded SQL Statements Supported by Pro*C
| Declarative Statements | |
| EXEC SQL ARRAYLEN | To use host arrays with PL/SQL |
| EXEC SQL BEGIN DECLARE SECTION EXEC SQL END DECLARE SECTION | To declare host variables |
| EXEC SQL DECLARE | To name Oracle objects |
| EXEC SQL INCLUDE | To copy in files |
| EXEC SQL TYPE | To equivalence datatypes |
| EXEC SQL VAR | To equivalence variables |
| EXEC SQL WHENEVER | To handle runtime errors |
| Executable Statements | |
| EXEC SQL ALLOCATE | To define and control Oracle data |
| EXEC SQL ALTER | |
| EXEC SQL ANALYZE | |
| EXEC SQL AUDIT | |
| EXEC SQL COMMENT | |
| EXEC SQL CONNECT | |
| EXEC SQL CREATE | |
| EXEC SQL DROP | |
| EXEC SQL GRANT | |
| EXEC SQL NOAUDIT | |
| EXEC SQL RENAME | |
| EXEC SQL REVOKE | |
| EXEC SQL TRUNCATE | |
| EXEC SQL CLOSE | |
| EXEC SQL DELETE | To query and manipulate Oracle data |
| EXEC SQL EXPLAIN PLAN | |
| EXEC SQL FETCH | |
| EXEC SQL INSERT | |
| EXEC SQL LOCK TABLE | |
| EXEC SQL OPEN | |
| EXEC SQL SELECT | |
| EXEC SQL UPDATE | |
| EXEC SQL COMMIT | To process transactions |
| EXEC SQL ROLLBACK | |
| EXEC SQL SAVEPOINT | |
| EXEC SQL SET TRANSACTION | |
| EXEC SQL DESCRIBE | To use dynamic SQL |
| EXEC SQL EXECUTE | |
| EXEC SQL PREPARE | |
| EXEC SQL ALTER SESSION | To control sessions |
| EXEC SQL SET ROLE | |
| EXEC SQL EXECUTE END-EXEC | To embed PL/SQL blocks |
Source :- http://infolab.stanford.edu/~ullman/fcdb/oracle/or-proc.html
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