• Preface
  • What This Guide Has to Offer
  • Who Should Read This Guide?
  • What's New in Release 1.8?
  • How This Guide Is Organized
  • Conventions Used in This Guide
  • Standards Compliance
  • Your Comments Are Welcome

• Getting Acquainted
  • What Is an Oracle Precompiler?
  • Why Use an Oracle Precompiler?
  • Why Use SQL?
  • Why Use PL/SQL?
  • What Do the Oracle Precompilers Offer?
  • Do the Oracle Precompilers Meet Industry Standards?

• Learning the Basics
  • Key Concepts of Embedded SQL Programming
  • Steps in Developing an Embedded SQL Application
  • A Program Example
  • Sample Tables

• Meeting Program Requirements
  • The Declare Section
  • INCLUDE Statements
  • The SQLCA
  • Oracle Datatypes
  • Datatype Conversion
  • Declaring and Referencing Host Variables
  • Declaring and Referencing Indicator Variables
  • Datatype Equivalencing
  • National Language Support
  • Multi-Byte NLS Character Sets
  • Connecting to Oracle
  • Concurrent Logons
  • Embedding OCI (Oracle Call Interface) Calls
  • Developing X/Open Applications

• Using Embedded SQL
  • Using Host Variables
  • Using Indicator Variables
  • The Basic SQL Statements
  • Cursors
  • Cursor Variables

• Using Embedded PL/SQL
  • Advantages of PL/SQL
  • Embedding PL/SQL Blocks
  • Using Host Variables
  • Using Indicator Variables
  • Using Host Arrays
  • Using Cursors
  • Stored Subprograms
  • Using Dynamic PL/SQL

• Running the Oracle Precompilers
  • The Precompiler Command
  • What Occurs during Precompilation?
  • Precompiler Options
  • Entering Options
  • Scope of Options
  • Quick Reference
  • Using the Precompiler Options
  • Conditional Precompilations
  • Separate Precompilations
  • Compiling and Linking

• Defining and Controlling Transactions
  • Some Terms You Should Know
  • How Transactions Guard Your Database
  • How to Begin and End Transactions
  • Using the COMMIT Statement
  • Using the ROLLBACK Statement
  • Using the SAVEPOINT Statement
  • Using the RELEASE Option
  • Using the SET TRANSACTION Statement
  • Overriding Default Locking
  • Fetching Across Commits
  • Handling Distributed Transactions
  • Guidelines

• Error Handling and Diagnostics
  • The Need for Error Handling
  • Error Handling Alternatives
  • Using Status Variables when MODE={ANSI|ANSI14}
  • Using the SQL Communications Area
  • Using the Oracle Communications Area

• Using Host Arrays
  • What Is a Host Array?
  • Why Use Arrays?
  • Declaring Host Arrays
  • Using Arrays in SQL Statements
  • Selecting into Arrays
  • Inserting with Arrays
  • Updating with Arrays
  • Deleting with Arrays
  • Using Indicator Arrays
  • Using the FOR Clause
  • Using the WHERE Clause
  • Mimicking the CURRENT OF Clause
  • Using SQLERRD(3)

• Using Dynamic SQL
  • What Is Dynamic SQL?
  • Advantages and Disadvantages of Dynamic SQL
  • When to Use Dynamic SQL
  • Requirements for Dynamic SQL Statements
  • How Dynamic SQL Statements Are Processed
  • Methods for Using Dynamic SQL
  • Using Method 1
  • Using Method 2
  • Using Method 3
  • Using Method 4
  • Using the DECLARE STATEMENT Statement
  • Using Host Arrays
  • Using PL/SQL

• Writing User Exits
  • What Is a User Exit?
  • Why Write a User Exit?
  • Developing a User Exit
  • Writing a User Exit
  • Calling a User Exit
  • Passing Parameters to a User Exit
  • Returning Values to a Form
  • An Example
  • Precompiling and Compiling a User Exit
  • Using the GENXTB Utility
  • Linking a User Exit into SQL*Forms
  • Guidelines for SQL*Forms User Exits
  • EXEC TOOLS Statements

• New Features
  • Fetching NULLs without Using Indicator Variables

• Oracle Reserved Words, Keywords, and Namespaces
  • Oracle Reserved Words
  • Oracle Keywords
  • PL/SQL Reserved Words
  • Oracle Reserved Namespaces

• Performance Tuning
  • What Causes Poor Performance?
  • How Can Performance be Improved?
  • Using Host Arrays
  • Using Embedded PL/SQL
  • Optimizing SQL Statements
  • Using Indexes
  • Taking Advantage of Row-Level Locking
  • Eliminating Unnecessary Parsing

• Syntactic and Semantic Checking
  • What Is Syntactic and Semantic Checking?
  • Controlling the Type and Extent of Checking
  • Specifying SQLCHECK=SEMANTICS

• Migrating to Oracle7

• Embedded SQL Commands and Directives
  • Summary of Precompiler Directives and Embedded SQL Commands
  • About The Command Descriptions
  • How to Read Syntax Diagrams
  • ALLOCATE (Executable Embedded SQL Extension)
  • CLOSE (Executable Embedded SQL)
  • COMMIT (Executable Embedded SQL)
  • CONNECT (Executable Embedded SQL Extension)
  • DECLARE CURSOR (Embedded SQL Directive)
  • DECLARE DATABASE (Oracle Embedded SQL Directive)
  • DECLARE STATEMENT (Embedded SQL Directive)
  • DECLARE TABLE (Oracle Embedded SQL Directive)
  • DELETE (Executable Embedded SQL)
  • DESCRIBE (Executable Embedded SQL)
  • EXECUTE ... END-EXEC (Executable Embedded SQL Extension)
  • EXECUTE (Executable Embedded SQL)
  • EXECUTE IMMEDIATE (Executable Embedded SQL)
  • FETCH (Executable Embedded SQL)
  • INSERT (Executable Embedded SQL)
  • OPEN (Executable Embedded SQL)
  • PREPARE (Executable Embedded SQL)
  • ROLLBACK (Executable Embedded SQL)
  • SAVEPOINT (Executable Embedded SQL)
  • SELECT (Executable Embedded SQL)
  • UPDATE (Executable Embedded SQL)
  • VAR (Oracle Embedded SQL Directive)
  • WHENEVER (Embedded SQL Directive)