Oracle® Call Interface Programmer's Guide 10g Release 1 (10.1) Part Number B10779-01 |
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The Oracle Call Interface (OCI) is an application programming interface (API) that allows applications written in C or C++ to interact with one or more Oracle database servers. OCI gives your programs the capability to perform the full range of database operations that are possible with an Oracle database server, including SQL statement processing and object manipulation.
The Preface includes the following sections:
This guide is intended for programmers developing new applications or converting existing applications to run in the Oracle environment. This comprehensive treatment of OCI will also be valuable to systems analysts, project managers, and others interested in the development of database applications.
This guide assumes that you have a working knowledge of application programming using C. Readers should also be familiar with the use of Structured Query Language (SQL) to access information in relational database systems. In addition, some sections of this guide also assume a knowledge of the basic concepts of object-oriented programming.
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A brief summary of what you will find in each chapter and appendix follows:
Part I (Chapter 1 through Chapter 9) provides conceptual information about how to program with OCI to build scalable application solutions that provide access to relational data in an Oracle database.
This chapter introduces you to the Oracle Call Interface and describes special terms and typographical conventions that are used in describing the interface. This chapter also discusses features new to the current release.
This chapter gives you the basic concepts needed to develop an OCI program. It discusses the essential steps each OCI program must include, and how to retrieve and understand error messages
Understanding how data is converted between Oracle tables and variables in your host program is essential for using OCI. This chapter discusses Oracle internal and external datatypes, and data conversions.
This chapter discusses the steps involved in SQL statements using OCI.
This chapter discusses OCI bind and define operations in detail, including a discussion of advanced bind and define operations.
This chapter discusses how to use the OCIDescribeAny()
call to obtain information about schema objects and their associated elements.
This chapter describes OCI support for LOB, FILE, and temporary LOB datatypes. It also describes the support for LOBs of size 4GBytes or greater.
This chapter describes password management, session management, and end-to-end application tracing.
This chapter covers more advanced OCI programming topics, including the OCI thread support, connection pooling, session pooling, descriptions of user callbacks, application failover callbacks, Streams Advanced Queuing, and publish-subscribe notification.
Part II (Chapter 10 through Chapter 14) describes OCI functionality for accessing object-relational data with OCI.
This chapter provides an introduction to the concepts involved when using OCI to access objects in an Oracle database server. The chapter includes a discussion of basic object concepts and object navigational access, and the basic structure of object-relational applications.
This chapter outlines the object datatypes used in OCI programming. This chapter discusses the C mappings of user-defined datatypes in an Oracle database, and the functions that manipulate such data. Binding and defining using these C mappings is also covered.
This chapter discusses loading of data (scalars, objects) from files into scalar and object columns using the Direct Path Loading API.
This chapter provides an introduction to the concepts involved when using OCI to access objects in an Oracle database server. This chapter also discusses the Object Cache, and the use of OCI navigational calls to manipulate objects retrieved from the server.
This chapter discusses the use of the Object Type Translator to convert database object definitions to C structures for use in OCI applications.
Part III lists OCI function calls in the OCI library and other reference information.
This chapter contains a list of the most basic OCI relational functions, including their syntax, comments, parameter descriptions, and other useful information.
This chapter continues the OCI relational functions started in the last chapter. It covers statement functions, as well as LOB, Streams Advanced Queuing and Publish-Subscribe, Direct Path Loading, thread management, transaction management and miscellaneous functions.
This chapter contains a list of OCI navigational functions, including syntax, comments, parameter descriptions, and other useful information.
This chapter contains a list of OCI datatype mapping and manipulation functions, including syntax, comments, parameter descriptions, and other useful information.
This chapter discusses special OCI functions used by external procedures and cartridge functions.
This chapter describes the OCI Any Type and Data functions.
This chapter describes the OCI globalization support functions.
This chapter describes the XML DB functions.
This appendix describes the attributes of OCI application handles that can be set or read using OCI calls.
This appendix gives the names of important OCI demonstration programs that are included with the Oracle installation.
This appendix includes tables which show the estimated number of server round trips required by various OCI applications.
This appendix provides introductory information to help you get started with OCI for Windows.
Because of the many enhancements to OCI, both new and experienced users should read the conceptual material in Part I.
Readers familiar with the current version of OCI and interested in its object capabilities can skim Part 1 and then begin reading the chapters in Part II.
Readers looking for reference information, such as OCI function syntax and handle attribute descriptions, go to Part III.
Many of the examples in this book use the sample schemas of the seed database, which is installed by default when you install Oracle. Refer to Oracle Database Sample Schemas for information on how these schemas were created and how you can use them yourself.
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The Oracle Call Interface Programmer's Guide does not contain all information that describes the features and functionality of OCI in the Standard Edition and the Enterprise Edition products.
For C++ programmers, the Oracle C++ Call Interface provides OCI functionality for C++ programs and lets you manipulate database objects (of user-defined types) as C++ objects.
For other sources of information about OCI:
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The following notational and text formatting conventions are used in this guide:
...
In code fragments, an ellipsis means that code not relevant to the discussion has been omitted. In syntax, an ellipsis means that the previous item can be repeated.
monospace font
SQL and C code examples, OCI function names, datatypes, database objects, packages, usernames, file names, and directory names are shown in monospace font. Syntax examples are in monospace font also.
italics
Italics are used for emphasis and for the titles of documents.
monospace italic
Monospace italics are used for input OCI parameters in syntax examples.
MONOSPACE UPPERCASE
Monospace uppercase is used for SQL or PL/SQL keywords, such as SELECT
or UPDATE,
and for built-in datatypes, such as NVARCHAR2
.
See Also:
Oracle Database SQL Reference and the PL/SQL User's Guide and Reference to see the lists of the keywords and reserved words for SQL and PL/SQL |
bold
Bold is sometimes used in code examples for emphasis.
default font
OCI attributes, such as OCI_ATTR_CACHE_OPT_SIZE, are written in default font.
This document describes the features of Oracle Database for Windows that apply to the Windows NT Server, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 operating systems.
The following table describes conventions for Windows operating systems and provides examples of their use.
This guide uses special text formatting to draw the reader's attention to some information. A paragraph that is indented and begins with a bold text label may have special meaning. The following paragraphs describe the different types of information that are flagged this way.
Note: The Note flag indicates that the reader should pay particular attention to the information to avoid a common problem or increase understanding of a concept. |
7.x Upgrade Note: An item marked with "7.x Upgrade Note" typically alerts the programmer to something that is done much differently in the releases 8 and later OCI than in the 7.x OCIs. |
Caution: An item marked Caution indicates something that an OCI programmer must be careful to do or not do in order for an application to work correctly. |
See Also:
Text marked See Also points you to another section of this guide, or to other documentation, for additional information about the topic being discussed. |
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