Micro Focus Server Express™

Database Access

MERANT™

Issue 1
January 1999

Copyright © 1999 MERANT International Limited. All rights reserved.
This document and the proprietary marks and names used herein are protected by international law.

MERANT has made every effort to ensure that this manual is correct and accurate but reserves the right to make changes without notice at its sole discretion at any time.

The software described in this document is supplied under a license and may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of such license, and in particular any warranty of fitness of MERANT software products for any particular purpose is expressly excluded and in no event will MERANT be liable for any consequential losses.

Micro Focus® is a registered trademark and Form Designer™, MERANT™, Micro Focus COBOL™ and Server Express™ are trademarks of MERANT International Limited.

UNIX® is a registered trademark of X/Open Company Limited.

Oracle® is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation.

Informix® is a registered trademark of Informix Corporation

Sybase™ is a trademark of Sybase, Inc.

Microsoft®, Windows®, and Windows for Workgroups®, are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

Visual Basic™ and Windows NT™ are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation

IBM® and DB2® are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation.

Preface

This book describes how you can use Server Express to create a COBOL application that uses embedded SQL to access a relational database.

Note: Use of COBSQL is only supported for standard procedural COBOL programs. You cannot use COBSQL with Object Oriented COBOL syntax (OO programs) or with nested programs.

Audience

This book is for Server Express COBOL programmers who want to create or modify COBOL applications which access relational databases using embedded SQL.

It is assumed that you are already familiar with SQL. You should also be familiar with the relational database you will be accessing, including the configuration of any client software that may be needed.

How to Use this Manual

Part One - Introduction

Chapter One, Introduction, gives a brief overview of embedded SQL and explains how you can build an embedded SQL application.

Chapter Two, Host Variables, describes host variables, host arrays, indicator variables and indicator arrays, and how they are used.

Chapter Three, Data Types, explains which data types are supported and how to map the data types used by a particular database to the correct COBOL picture clause.

Chapter Four, Cursors, details how to declare and open a cursor and how to use it to retrieve data.

Chapter Five, Data Structures, describes the SQLCA (SQL Communications Area) and the SQLDA (SQL Descriptor Area).

Chapter Six, Dynamic SQL, explains how to prepare and execute dynamic SQL.

Part Two - OpenESQL

Chapter Seven, OpenESQL, gives an overview of OpenESQL and how it works.

Part Three - DB2

Chapter Eight, DB2, describes the DB2 ECM and how it is used.

Part Four - COBSQL

Chapter Nine, COBSQL, documents the COBSQL preprocessor explaining how it is used.

Part Five - Appendices

Appendix A, Reserved Keywords, lists the keywords reserved for use by OpenESQL and ODBC.

Appendix B, COBSQL Error Messages, lists current COBSQL messages.

Appendix C, Connect ODBC UNIX Help, provides information on ODBC.

Appendix D, Embedded SQL Statements, lists the syntax and an example for each embedded SQL statement.

Appendix E, The CP Preprocessor, discusses the CP preprocessor.

MERANT

MERANT was formed by combining Micro Focus and INTERSOLV. All reference to the companies Micro Focus or INTERSOLV in this book should now be taken to mean MERANT. Micro Focus is retained as the family name for the Micro Focus product set produced by MERANT.

Notation

The following type styles and conventions have been used in this book:

Text that you type is shown like this:
cat script_name | more

The italic text denotes a variable that you type as part of the command.
Text in command lines or code examples that is optional is shown in square brackets. In the following example, the expression can specify that the column_name is like the pattern_value, or is not like the pattern_value, depending on the absence or presence of the optional word NOT:
column_name [NOT] LIKE pattern_value
A paragraph that applies only to a particular database or operating system is identified by a bold italic heading immediately preceding the paragraph it applies to. For example:
OpenESQL
This paragraph only applies to OpenESQL and not to DB2 or COBSQL.