matthewng3416 / codbc

C++ Oracle Database Connection

CODBC :: An Introduction

CODBC is an open source C++ API for Pro*C. If you try to connect C++ with Oracle SQL then you have two options, OCCI or Pro*C. Pro*C is the oldest way through which you can connect your C++ code with Oracle SQL. OCCI was introduced with Oracle 9i, but Pro*C has been there long before that. Well, there is not much support over internet for Pro*c as much as you can find for OCCI or any other tool or API for C++ and Oracle Connection. Pro*C has a complete different approach towards making this bridge between Oracle SQL and C++.

CODBC provides you with inbuilt classes and functions similar to OCCI. Writing a program over Pro*C is not as simple as writing a normal program in C++. Though it is not that difficult, but it is not even a piece of cake. If you are newbie to coding and want your C++ application to interact with Oracle SQL, you can use CODBC. But before you use CODBC, you have to install Pro*C and configure your Oracle SQL with Pro*C. If you are one of the programmers working on some legacy systems, then CODBC will serve you as a loyal friend and you will love to add CODBC classes to your code for better and easy implementation.

###Benefits of using CODBC over conventional Pro*C Before this, I would explain you the mechanism of writing Pro*C code:

• Unlike C++, Pro*C codes are not written in C++ files. Rather they are written in .pc files.
• After writing the complete code in .pc file, the file is compiled using Oracle Precompiler to get respected .cpp files.
• The .cpp file which you get after compiling the .pc file will be completely changed, and you won't get much out of the file. It will be all structs. Your 40 line code will change to 380 lines code.
• Now, you need to compile this .cpp file again to get the respective executable file. In this process, you might get error when compiling .pc file, but Oracle Pre-compiler do not check for C++ code error. Moreover it just translates the Pro*c code to give a .cpp file.

Coming to the benefits of CODBC:

• Create a .cpp file, and start as you start with normal C++ program.
• Include all the header files for CODBC, namely SQLHelper.h and SQLHelperException.h. Create an object of SQLHelper class and use the function calls from SQLHelper to process all the database related operations.
• Compile the .cpp file to get the executable. No need to write any .pc file.