<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /><title>36.16. Internals</title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheet.css" /><link rev="made" href="pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org" /><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets Vsnapshot" /><link rel="prev" href="ecpg-informix-compat.html" title="36.15. Informix Compatibility Mode" /><link rel="next" href="information-schema.html" title="Chapter 37. The Information Schema" /></head><body><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/transitional" class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="5" align="center">36.16. Internals</th></tr><tr><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="ecpg-informix-compat.html" title="36.15. Informix Compatibility Mode">Prev</a> </td><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="u" href="ecpg.html" title="Chapter 36. ECPG - Embedded SQL in C">Up</a></td><th width="60%" align="center">Chapter 36. <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="application">ECPG</span> - Embedded <acronym xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="acronym">SQL</acronym> in C</th><td width="10%" align="right"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html" title="PostgreSQL 11.5 Documentation">Home</a></td><td width="10%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="information-schema.html" title="Chapter 37. The Information Schema">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr></hr></div><div class="sect1" id="ECPG-DEVELOP"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both">36.16. Internals</h2></div></div></div><p>
This section explains how <span class="application">ECPG</span> works
internally. This information can occasionally be useful to help
users understand how to use <span class="application">ECPG</span>.
</p><p>
The first four lines written by <code class="command">ecpg</code> to the
output are fixed lines. Two are comments and two are include
lines necessary to interface to the library. Then the
preprocessor reads through the file and writes output. Normally
it just echoes everything to the output.
</p><p>
When it sees an <code class="command">EXEC SQL</code> statement, it
intervenes and changes it. The command starts with <code class="command">EXEC
SQL</code> and ends with <code class="command">;</code>. Everything in
between is treated as an <acronym class="acronym">SQL</acronym> statement and
parsed for variable substitution.
</p><p>
Variable substitution occurs when a symbol starts with a colon
(<code class="literal">:</code>). The variable with that name is looked up
among the variables that were previously declared within a
<code class="literal">EXEC SQL DECLARE</code> section.
</p><p>
The most important function in the library is
<code class="function">ECPGdo</code>, which takes care of executing most
commands. It takes a variable number of arguments. This can easily
add up to 50 or so arguments, and we hope this will not be a
problem on any platform.
</p><p>
The arguments are:
</p><div class="variablelist"><dl class="variablelist"><dt><span class="term">A line number</span></dt><dd><p>
This is the line number of the original line; used in error
messages only.
</p></dd><dt><span class="term">A string</span></dt><dd><p>
This is the <acronym class="acronym">SQL</acronym> command that is to be issued.
It is modified by the input variables, i.e., the variables that
where not known at compile time but are to be entered in the
command. Where the variables should go the string contains
<code class="literal">?</code>.
</p></dd><dt><span class="term">Input variables</span></dt><dd><p>
Every input variable causes ten arguments to be created. (See below.)
</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><em class="parameter"><code>ECPGt_EOIT</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>
An <code class="type">enum</code> telling that there are no more input
variables.
</p></dd><dt><span class="term">Output variables</span></dt><dd><p>
Every output variable causes ten arguments to be created.
(See below.) These variables are filled by the function.
</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><em class="parameter"><code>ECPGt_EORT</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>
An <code class="type">enum</code> telling that there are no more variables.
</p></dd></dl></div><p>
</p><p>
For every variable that is part of the <acronym class="acronym">SQL</acronym>
command, the function gets ten arguments:
</p><div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist" type="1"><li class="listitem"><p>
The type as a special symbol.
</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
A pointer to the value or a pointer to the pointer.
</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
The size of the variable if it is a <code class="type">char</code> or <code class="type">varchar</code>.
</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
The number of elements in the array (for array fetches).
</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
The offset to the next element in the array (for array fetches).
</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
The type of the indicator variable as a special symbol.
</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
A pointer to the indicator variable.
</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
0
</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
The number of elements in the indicator array (for array fetches).
</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
The offset to the next element in the indicator array (for
array fetches).
</p></li></ol></div><p>
</p><p>
Note that not all SQL commands are treated in this way. For
instance, an open cursor statement like:
</p><pre class="programlisting">
EXEC SQL OPEN <em class="replaceable"><code>cursor</code></em>;
</pre><p>
is not copied to the output. Instead, the cursor's
<code class="command">DECLARE</code> command is used at the position of the <code class="command">OPEN</code> command
because it indeed opens the cursor.
</p><p>
Here is a complete example describing the output of the
preprocessor of a file <code class="filename">foo.pgc</code> (details might
change with each particular version of the preprocessor):
</p><pre class="programlisting">
EXEC SQL BEGIN DECLARE SECTION;
int index;
int result;
EXEC SQL END DECLARE SECTION;
...
EXEC SQL SELECT res INTO :result FROM mytable WHERE index = :index;
</pre><p>
is translated into:
</p><pre class="programlisting">
/* Processed by ecpg (2.6.0) */
/* These two include files are added by the preprocessor */
#include <ecpgtype.h>;
#include <ecpglib.h>;
/* exec sql begin declare section */
#line 1 "foo.pgc"
int index;
int result;
/* exec sql end declare section */
...
ECPGdo(__LINE__, NULL, "SELECT res FROM mytable WHERE index = ? ",
ECPGt_int,&(index),1L,1L,sizeof(int),
ECPGt_NO_INDICATOR, NULL , 0L, 0L, 0L, ECPGt_EOIT,
ECPGt_int,&(result),1L,1L,sizeof(int),
ECPGt_NO_INDICATOR, NULL , 0L, 0L, 0L, ECPGt_EORT);
#line 147 "foo.pgc"
</pre><p>
(The indentation here is added for readability and not
something the preprocessor does.)
</p></div><div class="navfooter"><hr /><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="ecpg-informix-compat.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="ecpg.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="information-schema.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">36.15. <span class="productname">Informix</span> Compatibility Mode </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> Chapter 37. The Information Schema</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
