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3.10.3 Informix-compatible SQLDA Descriptor Areas

Informix-compatible mode supports a different structure than the one described in section 3.9.2 SQLDA Descriptor Areas. See below:

struct sqlvar_compat
{
        short   sqltype;
        int     sqllen;
        char       *sqldata;
        short      *sqlind;
        char       *sqlname;
        char       *sqlformat;
        short   sqlitype;
        short   sqlilen;
        char       *sqlidata;
        int     sqlxid;
        char       *sqltypename;
        short   sqltypelen;
        short   sqlownerlen;
        short   sqlsourcetype;
        char       *sqlownername;
        int     sqlsourceid;

        char       *sqlilongdata;
        int     sqlflags;
        void       *sqlreserved;
};

struct sqlda_compat
{
        short           sqld;
        struct sqlvar_compat *sqlvar;
        char            desc_name[19];
        short           desc_occ;
        struct sqlda_compat *desc_next;
        void               *reserved;
};

typedef struct sqlvar_compat    sqlvar_t;
typedef struct sqlda_compat     sqlda_t;

The global properties are:

sqld

The number of fields in the SQLDA descriptor.

sqlvar

Pointer to the per-field properties.

desc_name

Unused, filled with zero-bytes.

desc_occ

Size of the allocated structure.

desc_next

Pointer to the next SQLDA structure if the result set contains more than one records.

reserved

Unused pointer, contains NULL. Kept for Informix-compatibility.

The per-field properties are below, they are stored in the sqlvar array:

sqltype

Type of the field. Constants are in sqltypes.h

sqllen

Length of the field data.

sqldata

Pointer to the field data. The pointer is of char * type, the data pointed by it is in a binary format. Example:

int intval;

switch (sqldata->sqlvar[i].sqltype)
{
    case SQLINTEGER:
        intval = *(int *)sqldata->sqlvar[i].sqldata;
        break;
  ...
}

sqlind

Pointer to the NULL indicator. If returned by DESCRIBE or FETCH then it's always a valid pointer. If used as input for EXECUTE ... USING sqlda; then NULL-pointer value means that the value for this field is non-NULL. Otherwise a valid pointer and sqlitype has to be properly set. Example:

if (*(int2 *)sqldata->sqlvar[i].sqlind != 0)
    printf("value is NULL\n");

sqlname

Name of the field. 0-terminated string.

sqlformat

Reserved in Informix, value of PQfformat() for the field.

sqlitype

Type of the NULL indicator data. It's always SQLSMINT when returning data from the server. When the SQLDA is used for a parametrized query, the data is treated according to the set type.

sqlilen

Length of the NULL indicator data.

sqlxid

Extended type of the field, result of PQftype().

sqltypename

sqltypelen

sqlownerlen

sqlsourcetype

sqlownername

sqlsourceid

sqlflags

sqlreserved

Unused.

sqlilongdata

It equals to sqldata if sqllen is larger than 32KB.

Example:

EXEC SQL INCLUDE sqlda.h;

sqlda_t *sqlda; /* This doesn't need to be under 
                   embedded DECLARE SECTION */

EXEC SQL BEGIN DECLARE SECTION;
char *prep_stmt = "select * from table1";
int i;
EXEC SQL END DECLARE SECTION;

...

EXEC SQL PREPARE mystmt FROM :prep_stmt;

EXEC SQL DESCRIBE mystmt INTO sqlda;

printf("# of fields: %d\n", sqlda->sqld);
for (i = 0; i < sqlda->sqld; i++)
  printf("field %d: \"%s\"\n", sqlda->sqlvar[i]->sqlname);

EXEC SQL DECLARE mycursor CURSOR FOR mystmt;
EXEC SQL OPEN mycursor;
EXEC SQL WHENEVER NOT FOUND GOTO out;

while (1)
{
  EXEC SQL FETCH mycursor USING sqlda;
}

EXEC SQL CLOSE mycursor;

free(sqlda); /* The main structure is all to be free(),
              * sqlda and sqlda->sqlvar is in one allocated area */

For more information, see the sqlda.h header and the src/interfaces/ecpg/test/compat_informix/sqlda.pgc regression test.