User's Guide Part I. Introduction to SQL Anywhere Chapter 3. Overview of SQL AnywhereThe conversation between a client application and a database engine or server takes place through a SQL Anywhere programming interface. The available programming interfaces are:
This section describes the main characteristics of the high and low-level interfaces.
For more detailed information and guidelines to help you choose the most appropriate interface, see "Programming Interfaces".
ODBC and embedded SQL provide low-level interfaces to SQL Anywhere.
ODBC is supported by a wide range of DBMS and is implemented for Windows, Windows NT, and OS/2 as a database driver: a dynamic link library (DLL) that an application invokes to gain access to SQL Anywhere databases. On other platforms, the ODBC interface is implemented as a static library.
Embedded SQL is slightly quicker than ODBC and has a wider set of functions. Embedded SQL is implemented as a C/C++ language preprocessor, which translates SQL statements embedded in your code into calls to the interface. The interface is implemented as a DLL for Windows, Windows NT, and OS/2, and as a library on the other platforms.
The ODBC interface is the most widely-used interface to SQL Anywhere.
SQL Anywhere supports the Microsoft Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) interface not only in the Windows and Windows NT environments, but also on DOS, OS/2, the Macintosh, and QNX. This low-level interface provides almost all the functionality of embedded SQL with, (in the SQL Anywhere implementation), only a small performance penalty. Client applications using the ODBC interface can work with many different RDBMS.
SQL Anywhere supports all of the ODBC Version 2.1 API functions (Core, Level 1, and Level 2).
For a full description of ODBC programming, see the chapter "ODBC Programming".
The native programming interface of SQL Anywhere is embedded SQL. SQL Anywhere comes with dynamic link libraries (normal libraries in DOS, QNX, and NetWare) and a preprocessor to enable development of C and C++ applications using embedded SQL.
For a full description of embedded SQL programming, see the chapter "The Embedded SQL Interface".
SQL Anywhere also provides two higher-level programming interfaces, DDE (Windows and Windows NT only), and HLI (Windows, OS/2, and Windows NT only). High-level interfaces to SQL Anywhere are also provided by ODBC-enabled application development systems and applications.
The DDE server is a Windows application that enables you to access and alter data in SQL Anywhere databases using dynamic data exchange (DDE). Many Windows applications, including leading spreadsheets and word processors, support the DDE protocol.
The HLI is provided as a DLL for Windows, OS/2 and Windows NT and can be used from any application or environment that can call DLLs. It is simpler to use than ODBC, but also slower and supports less functionality.