Introduction to embedded SQL

Embedded SQL applications connect to databases and execute embedded SQL statements. The embedded SQL statements are contained in a package that must be bound to the target database server.

You can develop embedded SQL applications for the Db2® database in the following host programming languages: C, C++, and COBOL.

Building embedded SQL applications involves two prerequisite steps before application compilation and linking.

Preparing the source files containing embedded SQL statements using the Db2 precompiler.
The PREP (PRECOMPILE) command is used to invoke the Db2 precompiler, which reads your source code, parses and converts the embedded SQL statements to Db2 run-time services API calls, and finally writes the output to a new modified source file. The precompiler produces access plans for the SQL statements, which are stored together as a package within the database.
Binding the statements in the application to the target database.
Binding is done by default during precompilation (the PREP command). If binding is to be deferred (for example, running the BIND command later), then the BINDFILE option needs to be specified at PREP time in order for a bind file to be generated.

Once you have precompiled and bound your embedded SQL application, it is ready to be compiled and linked using the host language-specific development tools.

To aid in the development of embedded SQL applications, you can refer to the embedded SQL template in C. Examples of working embedded SQL sample applications can also be found in the %DB2PATH%\SQLLIB\samples directory.

Note: %DB2PATH% refers to the Db2 installation directory

Static and dynamic SQL

SQL statements can be executed in one of two ways: statically or dynamically.

Statically executed SQL statements: For statically executed SQL statements, the syntax is fully known at precompile time. The structure of an SQL statement must be completely specified for a statement to be considered static. For example, the names for the columns and tables referenced in a statement must be fully known at precompile time. The only information that can be specified at run time are values for any host variables referenced by the statement. However, host variable information, such as data types, must still be precompiled. You precompile, bind, and compile statically executed SQL statements before you run your application. Static SQL is best used on databases whose statistics do not change a great deal.
Dynamically executed SQL statements: Dynamically executed SQL statements are built and executed by an application at run-time. An interactive application that prompts the end user for key parts of an SQL statement, such as the names of the tables and columns to be searched, is a good example of a situation suited for dynamic SQL.