SQL/MP Reference Manual

HP NonStop SQL/MP Reference Manual—523352-013

H-6

Host Programs

A host program or host language program is a program that contains both host-

language statements and embedded SQL statements.

You can write SQL/MP host programs in C, COBOL, Pascal, or TAL. For more

information, see one of these manuals:

SQL/MP Programming Manual for C

SQL/MP Programming Manual for COBOL

SQL Programming Manual for Pascal

SQL Programming Manual for TAL

C programs can run in the Guardian or OSS environments; other programs run only in

the Guardian environment.

Host Variables

Host variables are data items declared in a host program and used in both host

language statements and SQL statements. They provide for communication between

SQL and the host language.

A host variable can be any valid host -language variable that has a corresponding SQL

data type. You can include host variables in many SQL statements and in SQL

expressions. The syntax for a host variable that appears in an SQL statement follows:

host-identifier

is the name of the host variable as declared in the host program; host-

identifier must conform to the naming rules of the host language.

[INDICATOR]:indicator-host-identifier

specifies an indicator variable for handling null values returned to the host variable

or inserting null values into the database through the host variable. For more

information, see Indicator Variables and Indicator Parameters on page I-11.

:host-identifier[[INDICATOR]:indicator-host-identifier]

[ TYPE AS { DATETIME [ start-dt TO ] end-dt } ]

[ { } ]

[ { DATE | TIME | TIMESTAMP } ]

[ { } ]

[ { INTERVAL start-dt } ]

[ { [ (start-field-precision) ] } ]

[ { [ TO end-dt ] } ]