Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 21 Days, Fourth Edition

Embedding SQL in Application Programming

SQL was originally made an ANSI standard in 1986. The ANSI 1989 standard (often called SQL-89) defines three types of interfacing to SQL within an application program:

• Module Language— Uses procedures within programs. These procedures can be called by the application program and can return values to the program via parameter passing.

• Embedded SQL— Uses SQL statements embedded with actual program code. This method often requires the use of a precompiler to process the SQL statements. The standard defines statements for Pascal, FORTRAN, COBOL, and PL/1.

• Direct Invocation— Left up to the implementor.

Before the concept of dynamic SQL evolved, embedded SQL was the most popular way to use SQL within a programming ...