Using SQL in an Application Program

The previous sections have described how to use SQL as a database language. While some programming considerations necessarily were involved with the operational aspects of the SQL language itself, how to actually use RDM SQL from an application program is the subject of this section.

There are several different application programming interfaces (API) available for use with RDM SQL. The nativeRDM SQL API is designed for use with C application programs. Raima also provides an API that conforms to Microsoft's ODBC (Open Data Base Connectivity) API specification which is also designed for use with C application programs. Programs written in Java can access RDM SQL through the JDBC (Java Data Base Connectivity) API that is also provided by Raima. Both the ODBC and JDBC APIs have been implemented using the RDM native API so those of you who are familiar with ODBC or JDBC will see close similarities with them.

If you are an experienced ODBC programmer, you will have little difficulty in learning how to use the native API. However, while there are many similarities, there are also some significant differences so you will want to do a careful reading of this section and do not assume that just because ODBC does something a certain way that the native API does it the same way. In fact, we've designed the native API to be simpler and easier to use than ODBC.