SQL programming

The previous examples treat SQL as if it were an interactive computer language; that is, as if you could type a SELECT statement directly into the database server and see rows of data rolling back to you.

Of course, that is not the case. Many layers of software stand between you and the database server. The database server retains data in a binary form that must be formatted before it can be displayed. It does not return a mass of data at once; it returns one row at a time, as a program requests it.

You can access information in your database through interactive access with , through application programs written with an SQL API such as , or through an application language such as SPL.

Almost any program can contain SQL statements, execute them, and retrieve data from a database server. This chapter explains how these activities are performed and indicates how you can write programs that perform them.

This chapter introduces concepts that are common to SQL programming in any language. Before you can write a successful program in a particular programming language, you must first become fluent in that language. Then, because the details of the process are different in every language, you must become familiar with the publication for the HCL OneDB™ SQL API specific to that language.