Pointer Usage with Ada Variables

In order to fill an element of the sqlvar array, you must set the type information, and assign a valid address to sqldata. The address must be that of a legally declared and allocated variable. If the element is nullable then the corresponding sqlind component must point at a legally declared null indicator.

In order to assign addresses to sqldata and sqlind, you should use the Ada address attribute or some other function that yields an address. Because null indicators are not always required, you can sometimes assign sqlind a zero-valued address. This can be accomplished by assigning to sqlind the constant IISQ_ADR_ZERO, as defined in the ESQLDA package, or the constant ADDRESS_ZERO, if you have included the SYSTEM package.

When assigning addresses, you should be careful to follow the guidelines set by the VAX/VMS Ada. For example, you should not reference a variable whose lifetime has expired, and you should not access storage beyond the allocated amount. You can use the volatile pragma when addressing variables local to a subprogram body in order to prevent the compiler from referring to a local copy of a variable. When dynamically allocating result storage variables, you may want to use the controlled pragma together with an instantiation of the generic unchecked_deallocation procedure. The SQL Terminal Monitor Application (see page The SQL Terminal Monitor Application) and A Dynamic SQL/Forms Database Browser (see page A Dynamic SQL/Forms Database Browser), which use Dynamic SQL and the SQLDA, do not use any of these pragmas, but rely on the rules defined in the VAX Ada Programmer's Runtime Reference Manual.

The following example fragment sets the type information of and points at a 4-byte integer variable, an 8-byte nullable floating-point variable, and a character slice (sub-string) whose length is specified by sqllen. This example demonstrates how a program can maintain a pool of available variables, such as large arrays of a few different typed variables and a large string space. When a variable is allocated out of the pool the next available spot is incremented:

-- Numeric and string pool declarations.
ind_store: array(1..MAX_POOL) of
Short_Integer; -- Indicators
current_ind: Integer := 0;
int4_store: array(1..MAX_POOL) of Integer; -- Integers
current_int: Integer := 0;
flt8_store: array(1..MAX_POOL) of Long_Float; -- Floats
current_flt: Integer := 0;
char_store: String(1..3000); -- String buffer
current_chr: Integer := 1;

...
sqlda.sqlvar(1).sqltype := IISQ_INT_TYPE;
                                                  -- 4-byte integer
sqlda.sqlvar(1).sqllen  := 4;
sqlda.sqlvar(1).sqldata:= int4_store(current_int)'Address;
sqlda.sqlvar(1).sqlind := IISQ_ADR_ZERO;
current_int            := current_int + 1;
                                          -- Update integer pool

sqlda.sqlvar(2).sqltype := -IISQ_FLT_TYPE;
                                 -- 8-byte nullable float
sqlda.sqlvar(2).sqllen := 8;
sqlda.sqlvar(2).sqldata :=flt8_store(current_flt)'Address;
sqlda.sqlvar(2).sqlind := ind_store(current_ind)'Address;
current_flt          := current_flt + 1; -- Update float
current_ind          := current_ind + 1; -- and indicator
                                          -- pool

--
-- SQLLEN has been assigned by DESCRIBE to be the length
-- of a specific result column. This length is used to
-- pick off a slice out of the large string buffer.
-- The character counter is then updated.
--

sqlda.sqlvar(3).sqltype := IISQ_CHA_TYPE;
sqlda.sqlvar(3).sqldata
:= char_store(current_chr)'Address;
sqlda.sqlvar(3).sqlind := IISQ_ADR_ZERO;
current_chr := current_chr + sqlda.sqlvar(3).sqllen;

Of course, in the above example, you must verify enough pool storage before referencing each cell of the different arrays in order to prevent sqldata and sqlind from pointing at undefined storage. For demonstrations of this method, see The SQL Terminal Monitor Application (see page The SQL Terminal Monitor Application) and A Dynamic SQL/Forms Database Browser (see page A Dynamic SQL/Forms Database Browser) in this chapter.

You may also set the SQLVAR to point to a datahandler for large object columns.

If you code your own SQLDA and, in place of sqldata, you declare a variant record of access types to a subset of different data types you may find that you can use the Ada allocator, new, and basic access type assignments. If you confirm that the layout of the record with the variant component is the same as that of IISQLDA, then you can use this type of record as an SQLDA without the need to access object addresses. This approach is not discussed further.