Inserting more than one element
An insert cursor that includes an INSERT statement with the collection-derived table clause allows you to insert many elements into a collection variable.
About this task
Procedure
- Create a client collection variable in your
Informix® ESQL/C program.
For more information, see Declaring collection variables and Manage memory for collections.
- Declare the insert cursor for the collection variable with the DECLARE statement and open the cursor with the OPEN statement.
- Put the element or elements into the collection variable with the PUT statement and the FROM clause.
- Close the insert cursor with the CLOSE statement, and if you no longer need the cursor, free it with the FREE statement.
- After the collection variable contains all the elements,
you then use the UPDATE statement or the INSERT statement on a table
name to save the contents of the collection variable in a collection
column (SET, MULTISET, or LIST).
For more information, see Operate on a collection column.
Results
Tip: Instead of an insert cursor, you can use
an INSERT statement to insert elements one at a time into a collection variable.
However, an insert cursor is more efficient for large insertions.
For more information, see Insert one element.
For sample code that inserts several elements into a collection variable, see Insertion of many elements into a collection host variable.