INF: How to Use the SQL_DRIVER_HSTMT Option in SQLGetInfo()

SUMMARY

An ODBC application uses handles in all its calls to the driver. These calls are typically made first to the Driver Manager which then routes them to the appropriate driver. However, the handles that are passed between the application and the Driver Manager are not the same as the handles passed between the Driver Manager and the driver. That is why the SQLGetInfo() ODBC API function has three fInfoTypes, SQL_DRIVER_HENV, SQL_DRIVER_HDBC and SQL_DRIVER_HSTMT, which enable an application to get the handles used by the driver. This article discusses how such handles are managed by the Driver Manager and how they can be used by an application to call a driver directly.

MORE INFORMATION

The role of the Driver Manager (DM) as discussed in the ODBC SDK "Programmer's Reference" is to load drivers, provide entry points to an application for eventual calls to the driver, to validate arguments passed by an application, and to check state transitions. To deliver this functionality, the DM uses internal structures to manage all connections and statements used by an application.

For example, when an application calls SQLAllocStmt() with the address of a statement handle, the DM allocates memory to manage this new hstmt. It then stores the far pointer to the DM-allocated memory in the statement handle of the application. The DM then calls SQLAllocStmt() in the Driver and uses a different handle variable to pass to the Driver. The Driver allocates memory to manage the statement, and can store its 32-bit pointer in the handle address passed to it by the DM. The following example demonstrates a simplified version of this process. It does not show how the DM associates an application's handle (hstmtApp) with the driver's handle (hstmtDrv). Also note that a similar process applies to the hdbc and henv handles.

Application                DM                               Driver

SQLAllocStmt      ----> *hstmtApp =
(hdbc, &hstmtApp)       GlobalAlloc(memory)
                        SQLAllocStmt(hdbc, &hstmtDrv)--->
                                                         *hstmtDrv=
                                                         GlobalAlloc()

SQLExecDirect     ----> Map hstmtApp to hstmtDrv.
(hstmtApp, "select")    SQLExecDirect                --->To Driver
                        (hstmtDrv, "select")

SQLGetInfo        ---->

// Windows API calls

// Call to ODBC Driver

An application, after connecting to a data source, may want to bypass the DM and communicate directly with the driver. This is not recommended because it assumes a good deal of familiarity between the application and the driver, and thus impedes interoperability.

In cases where this needs to be done, an application can first call the ODBC SQLGetInfo() function and pass one of the following values for the fInfoType argument depending on what driver handle it wants to retrieve: SQL_DRIVER_HENV, SQL_DRIVER_HDBC, SQL_DRIVER_HSTMT. When using 1.0 ODBC drivers, the application can then make the GetModuleHandle() call (For drivers that comply with the ODBC 2.0 specification, the application can call SQLGetInfo [SQL_DRIVER_HLIB] instead of GetModuleHandle to get the handle of the Driver DLL) and the GetProcAddress() call to the Windows API if does not already have the handle to the loaded driver DLL and the entry points into the driver respectively. Now, the application can call the driver directly with these ODBC driver handles and bypass the Driver Manager.