Introduction to embedded SQL

Embedded SQL is a database programming interface for the C and C++ programming languages. It consists of SQL statements intermixed with (embedded in) C or C++ source code. These SQL statements are translated by a SQL preprocessor into C or C++ source code, which you then compile.

At runtime, embedded SQL applications use a SQL Anywhere interface library to communicate with a database server. The interface library is a dynamic link library (DLL) or shared library on most platforms.

  • On Windows operating systems, the interface library is dblib11.dll.
  • On Unix operating systems, the interface library is libdblib11.so, libdblib11.sl, or libdblib11.a, depending on the operating system.
  • On Mac OS X, the interface library is libdblib11.dylib.1.

SQL Anywhere provides two flavors of embedded SQL. Static embedded SQL is simpler to use, but is less flexible than dynamic embedded SQL.


Development process overview
Running the SQL preprocessor
Supported compilers
Embedded SQL header files
Import libraries
A simple example
Structure of embedded SQL programs
Loading the interface library dynamically