Lecture # 15-16 Introduction to

SQL Programming Techniques

Rashmi Dutta Baruah
Department of Computer Science & Engineering
 Outline
• Database Programming
• Embedded SQL
• Functions Calls, SQL/CLI
• Stored Procedures, SQL/PSM
• Summary

Chapter 9-2
 Database Programming
• Objective: to access a database from an application
program (as opposed to interactive interfaces)

• Why? An interactive interface is convenient but not

sufficient; a majority of database operations are
made thru application programs (nowadays thru web
applications)

Chapter 9-3
 Database Programming Approaches

• Embedded commands: database commands are

embedded in a general-purpose programming
language

• Library of database functions: available to the host

language for database calls; known as an API

• A brand new, full-fledged language (minimizes

impedance mismatch) Eg. Oracle’s PL/SQL

Chapter 9-4
 Impedance Mismatch
• Incompatibilities between a host programming
language and the database model, e.g.,
– type mismatch and incompatibilities; requires a new
binding for each language
– set vs. record-at-a-time processing
• need special iterators to loop over query results and manipulate
individual values

Chapter 9-5
 Steps in Database Programming

1. Client program opens a connection to the database

server
2. Client program submits queries to and/or updates
the database
3. When database access is no longer needed, client
program terminates the connection

Chapter 9-6
 Embedded SQL
• Most SQL statements can be embedded in a general-
purpose host programming language such as COBOL,
C, Java
• An embedded SQL statement is distinguished from
the host language statements by EXEC SQL and a
matching END-EXEC (or semicolon)
– shared variables (used in both languages) usually prefixed
with a colon (:) in SQL

Chapter 9-7
 Example: Variable Declaration
in Language C
• Variables inside DECLARE are shared and can appear (while
prefixed by a colon) in SQL statements
• SQLCODE is used to communicate errors/exceptions between
the database and the program
int loop;
EXEC SQL BEGIN DECLARE SECTION;
varchar dname[16], fname[16], …;
char ssn[10], bdate[11], …;
int dno, dnumber, SQLCODE, …;
EXEC SQL END DECLARE SECTION;

Chapter 9-8
 SQL Commands for
Connecting to a Database
• Connection (multiple connections are possible but
only one is active)
CONNECT TO server-name AS connection-name
AUTHORIZATION user-account-info;

• Change from an active connection to another one

SET CONNECTION connection-name;

• Disconnection
DISCONNECT connection-name;

Chapter 9-9
 Embedded SQL in C
Programming Examples
loop = 1;
while (loop) {
prompt (“Enter SSN: “, ssn);
EXEC SQL
select FNAME, LNAME, ADDRESS, SALARY
into :fname, :lname, :address, :salary
from EMPLOYEE where SSN == :ssn;
if (SQLCODE == 0) printf(fname, …);
else printf(“SSN does not exist: “, ssn);
prompt(“More SSN? (1=yes, 0=no): “, loop);
END-EXEC
}

Chapter 9-10
 Embedded SQL in C
Programming Examples
• A cursor (iterator) is needed to process multiple
tuples

• FETCH commands move the cursor to the next tuple

• CLOSE CURSOR indicates that the processing of

query results has been completed

Chapter 9-11
 Example C program segment that uses cursors with embedded SQL for update purposes
0) prompt("Enter the Department Name: ", dname) ;
1) EXEC SQL
2) SELECT Dnumber INTO :dnumber
3) FROM DEPARTMENT WHERE Dname = :dname ;
4) EXEC SQL DECLARE EMP CURSOR FOR
5) SELECT Ssn, Fname, Minit, Lname, Salary
6) FROM EMPLOYEE WHERE Dno = :dnumber
7) FOR UPDATE OF Salary ;
8) EXEC SQL OPEN EMP ;
9) EXEC SQL FETCH FROM EMP INTO :ssn, :fname, :minit, :lname,
:salary ;
10) while (SQLCODE = = 0) {
11) printf("Employee name is:", Fname, Minit, Lname) ;
12) prompt("Enter the raise amount: ", raise) ;
13) EXEC SQL
14) UPDATE EMPLOYEE
15) SET Salary = Salary + :raise
16) WHERE CURRENT OF EMP ;
17) EXEC SQL FETCH FROM EMP INTO :ssn, :fname, :minit,
:lname, :salary ;
18) }
19) EXEC SQL CLOSE EMP ;

12
 Dynamic SQL
• Objective: executing new (not previously compiled)
SQL statements at run-time
– a program accepts SQL statements from the keyboard at
run-time
– User Inputs a Query at Runtime, SQL Command is
prepared, command is executed

Chapter 9-13
 Dynamic SQL: An Example

EXEC SQL BEGIN DECLARE SECTION;

varchar sqlupdatestring[256];
EXEC SQL END DECLARE SECTION;
…
prompt (“Enter update command:“, sqlupdatestring);
EXEC SQL PREPARE sqlcommand FROM :sqlupdatestring;
EXEC SQL EXECUTE sqlcommand;

Chapter 9-14
 Embedded SQL in Java
• SQLJ: a standard for embedding SQL in Java
• An SQLJ translator converts SQL statements into Java
(to be executed thru the JDBC interface)
• Certain classes, e.g., java.sql have to be
imported

Chapter 9-15
 Importing classes needed for including SQLJ in Java programs in Oracle,
and establishing a connection and default context.
1) import java.sql.* ;
2) import java.io.* ; Note: SQLJ is primarily designed for
working with Oracle databases, and
3) import sqlj.runtime.* ;
support for MySQL using SQLJ is not
4) import sqlj.runtime.ref.* ; natively available. However, JDBC
5) import oracle.sqlj.runtime.* ; drivers can be used as a bridge
...
6) DefaultContext cntxt =
7) oracle.getConnection("<url name>", "<user name>",
"<password>", true) ;

1) string dname, ssn , fname, fn, lname, ln, bdate,

address ;
2) char sex, minit, mi ; . Java program variables
3) double salary, sal ; used in SQLJ

4) integer dno, dnumber ;

16
 Embedded SQL in Java: An Example

1) ssn = readEntry("Enter a Social Security Number: ");

2) try {
3) #sql { SELECT Fname, Minit, Lname, Address,
Salary
4) INTO :fname, :minit, :lname, :address, :salary
5) FROM EMPLOYEE WHERE Ssn = :ssn} ;
6) } catch (SQLException se) {
7) System.out.println("Social Security Number does
not exist: " + ssn) ;
8) Return ;
9) }
10) System.out.println(fname + " " + minit + " " +
lname + " " + address + " " + salary)

17
 Multiple Tuples in SQLJ
• SQLJ supports two types of iterators:
– named iterator: associated with a query result
– positional iterator: lists only attribute types in a query
result
• A FETCH operation retrieves the next tuple in a query
result:
fetch iterator-variable into program-variable

Chapter 9-18
 Example: named iterator
0) dname = readEntry("Enter the Department Name: ") ;
1) try {
2) #sql { SELECT Dnumber INTO :dnumber
3) FROM DEPARTMENT WHERE Dname = :dname} ;
4) } catch (SQLException se) {
5) System.out.println("Department does not exist: " + dname);
6) Return ;
7) }
8) System.out.printline("Employee information for Department:
" + dname) ;
9) #sql iterator Emp(String ssn, String fname, String minit,
String lname, double salary) ;
10) Emp e = null ; Iterator object e of type Emp is created
11) #sql e = { SELECT ssn, fname, minit, lname, salary
12) FROM EMPLOYEE WHERE Dno = :dnumber} ;
13) while (e.next()) {
14) System.out.printline(e.ssn + " " + e.fname + " " +
e.minit + " " + e.lname + " " + e.salary) ;
15) } ;
16) e.close() ; 19
 Example: positional iterator
0) dname = readEntry("Enter the Department Name: ") ;
1) try {
2) #sql { SELECT Dnumber INTO :dnumber
3) FROM DEPARTMENT WHERE Dname = :dname} ;
4) } catch (SQLException se) {
5) System.out.println("Department does not exist: " + dname) ;
6) Return ;
7) }
8) System.out.printline("Employee information for Department: " +
dname) ;
9) #sql iterator Emppos(String, String, String, String, double) ;
10) Emppos e = null ;
11) #sql e = { SELECT ssn, fname, minit, lname, salary
12) FROM EMPLOYEE WHERE Dno = :dnumber} ;
13) #sql { FETCH :e INTO :ssn, :fn, :mi, :ln, :sal} ;
14) while (!e.endFetch()) {
15) System.out.printline(ssn + " " + fn + " " + mi + " " + ln
+ " " + sal) ;
16) #sql { FETCH :e INTO :ssn, :fn, :mi, :ln, :sal} ;
17) } ;
20
18) e.close() ;
 Database Programming with Functional Calls

• Embedded SQL provides static database

programming
• API: dynamic database programming with a library of
functions
– advantage: no preprocessor needed (thus more flexible)
– drawback: SQL syntax checks to be done at run-time

Chapter 9-21
 SQL Call Level Interface
• A part of the SQL standard
• Provides easy access to several databases within the
same program
• Certain libraries (e.g., sqlcli.h for C) have to be
installed and available
• SQL statements are dynamically created and passed
as string parameters in the calls

Chapter 9-22
 Components of SQL/CLI
• Environment record: keeps track of database
connections

• Connection record: keep tracks of info needed for a

particular connection

• Statement record: keeps track of info needed for one

SQL statement

• Description record: keeps track of tuples

Chapter 9-23
//Reads a Social Security number of an employee and prints the employee’s last
name and salary
0) #include sqlcli.h ; Load SQL/CLI libraries (0)
1) void printDepartmentEmps() {
2) SQLHSTMT stmt1 ;
3) SQLHDBC con1 ; Declare record handle variables (2-5)
4) SQLHENV env1 ;
5) SQLRETURN ret1, ret2, ret3, ret4 ;
6) ret1 = SQLAllocHandle(SQL_HANDLE_ENV, SQL_NULL_HANDLE,
&env1) ;
7) if (!ret1) ret2 = SQLAllocHandle(SQL_HANDLE_DBC, env1,
&con1) else exit ;
8) if (!ret2) ret3 = SQLConnect(con1, "dbs", SQL_NTS,
"js", SQL_NTS, "xyz",SQL_NTS) else exit ;
9) if (!ret3) ret4 = SQLAllocHandle(SQL_HANDLE_STMT, con1,
&stmt1) else exit ;

Set up environment, connection

and statement records (6-9).

24
10) SQLPrepare(stmt1, "select Lname, Salary from EMPLOYEE
where Dno = ?", SQL_NTS) ;
Prepare a SQL statement (10)

11) prompt("Enter the Department Number: ", dno) ;

12); SQLBindParameter(stmt1, 1, SQL_INTEGER, &dno, 4,
&fetchlen1) Bound parameters to program variables (12)
13) ret1 = SQLExecute(stmt1) ;
Execute SQL statement (13)
14) if (!ret1) {
15) SQLBindCol(stmt1, 1, SQL_CHAR, &lname, 15, &fetchlen1)
;
16) SQLBindCol(stmt1, 2, SQL_FLOAT,&salary, 4, &fetchlen2)
;
17) ret2 = SQLFetch(stmt1) ; Bound columns in a query to a C
18) while (!ret2) { variable (15-16)
19) printf(lname, salary) ;
20) ret2 = SQLFetch(stmt1) ;
21) } retrieve column values into C variables (17, 20)
22) }
23) }
25
 Java Database Connectivity
• JDBC: SQL connection function calls for Java
programming
• A Java program with JDBC functions can access any
relational DBMS that has a JDBC driver
• JDBC allows a program to connect to several
databases (known as data sources)

Chapter 9-26
 Example: Java program segment with JDBC
0) import java.io.* ;
1) import java.sql.* Import JDBC class libraries
...
2) class getEmpInfo {
3) public static void main (String args []) throws
SQLException, IOException { Load JDBC driver (4-7)
4) try { Class.forName("oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver")
5) } catch (ClassNotFoundException x) {
6) System.out.println ("Driver could not be loaded") ;
7) }
8) String dbacct, passwrd, ssn, lname ; Create variables (8-9)
9) Double salary ;
10) dbacct = readentry("Enter database account:") ;
11) passwrd = readentry("Enter password:") ;
12) Connection conn = DriverManager.getConnection
13) ("jdbc:oracle:oci8:" + dbacct + "/" + passwrd) ;

Create connection object (12-13)

27
 Example: Java program segment with JDBC
14) String stmt1 = "select Lname, Salary from EMPLOYEE
where Ssn = ?" ; Prepared stmt object (15)
15) PreparedStatement p = conn.prepareStatement(stmt1) ;
16) ssn = readentry("Enter a Social Security Number: ") ;
17) p.clearParameters() ;
Set the statement parameters
18) p.setString(1, ssn) ;
19) ResultSet r = p.executeQuery() ;
20) while (r.next()) { Execute query, result in object r
21) lname = r.getString(1) ; of type ResultSet
22) salary = r.getDouble(2) ;
23) system.out.printline(lname + salary) ;
24) } }
25) }

28
 Steps in JDBC Database Access
1. Import JDBC library (java.sql.*)
2. Load JDBC driver:
Class.forname(“oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver”)
3. Define appropriate variables
4. Create a connect object (via getConnection)
5. Create a statement object from the Statement
class:
1. PreparedStatment
2. CallableStatement

Chapter 9-29
 Steps in JDBC Database Access
(continued)
6. Identify statement parameters (to be designated by
question marks)
7. Bound parameters to program variables
8. Execute SQL statement (referenced by an object)
via JDBC’s executeQuery
9. Process query results (returned in an object of type
ResultSet)
– ResultSet is a 2-dimentional table

Chapter 9-30
 Database Stored Procedures
• Persistent procedures/functions (modules) are
stored locally and executed by the database server
(as opposed to execution by clients)
• Advantages:
– if the procedure is needed by many applications, it can be
invoked by any of them (thus reduce duplications)
– execution by the server reduces communication costs
– enhance the modeling power of views

Chapter 9-31
 Stored Procedure Constructs
• A stored procedure
CREATE PROCEDURE procedure-name (params)
local-declarations
procedure-body;

• A stored function
CREATE FUNCTION fun-name (params) RETRUNS return-type
local-declarations
function-body;

• Calling a procedure or function

CALL procedure-name/fun-name (arguments);

Chapter 9-32
 SQL Persistent Stored Modules

• SQL/PSM: part of the SQL standard for writing

persistent stored modules
• SQL + stored procedures/functions + additional
programming constructs
– e.g., branching and looping statements
– enhance the power of SQL

Chapter 9-33
 SQL/PSM: An Example
CREATE FUNCTION Dept_size (IN deptno INTEGER)
RETURNS VARCHAR[7]
DECLARE Tot_emps INTEGER;

SELECT COUNT (*) INTO Tot_emps

FROM EMPLOYEE WHERE Dno = deptno;

IF Tot_emps > 100 THEN RETURN “HUGE”

ELSEIF Tot_emps > 50 THEN RETURN “LARGE”
ELSEIF Tot_emps > 30 THEN RETURN “MEDIUM”
ELSE RETURN “SMALL”
END IF;

Chapter 9-34
 Summary
• A database may be accessed via an interactive
database
• Most often, however, data in a database is
manipulate via application programs
• Several methods of database programming:
– embedded SQL
– dynamic SQL
– stored procedure and function

Chapter 9-35