11 ODBC for UNIX

ODBC programming for UNIX is fundamentally the same as ODBC programming on Windows. There is a difference, however, regarding driver managers:

UNIX platforms usually do not supply an ODBC driver manager. On UNIX, it is typical for programs to be linked directly with the TimesTen Data Manager ODBC driver or the TimesTen Client ODBC driver.
Windows platforms do supply an ODBC driver manager, and it is typical for programs on Windows to use it.

TimesTen supplies a driver manager for either Windows or UNIX with the Quick Start sample applications.

The TimesTen Data Manager ODBC driver and the TimesTen Client ODBC driver are ODBC 2.5 drivers closer in functionality to ODBC 2.0 than to ODBC 3.0.

This chapter covers the following topics:

Inapplicable chapters in the Microsoft ODBC manual
Minor inconsistencies
Microsoft ODBC 2.5

Inapplicable chapters in the Microsoft ODBC manual

A few chapters in the Microsoft ODBC Programmer's Reference and SDK Guide, version 2.0, are not relevant for UNIX developers working with TimesTen, in case you use that document:

Chapter 18, "Constructing an ODBC Driver", and Chapter 24, "Installer DLL Function Reference", are relevant only for Windows developers.
Chapter 19 and Chapter 20 are platform-specific and are also not relevant for TimesTen applications programmers. They are only relevant for ODBC driver developers.

Minor inconsistencies

In addition to the inapplicable chapters, consider the following issues if you work with the Microsoft ODBC Programmer's Reference and SDK Guide, version 2.0, as a UNIX user:

Inapplicable information. Some information in the Microsoft ODBC 2.0 manual is inapplicable for UNIX users. This includes information on Microsoft products, such as comparisons with Microsoft Excel® or caveats that apply to the Windows environment only.
DLL/Shared library. The equivalent of a Windows DLL (dynamically linked library) is a UNIX shared library.
File names. Under Windows, all file names are uppercase. Under UNIX, all filenames are lowercase. Otherwise the names are equivalent except for the odbc.ini file.
odbc.ini file or registry. The Microsoft ODBC 2.0 manual states that certain information is stored in the registry. On UNIX platforms, this information is stored in the $HOME/.odbc.ini file.
Character restrictions. The Microsoft ODBC 2.0 manual states character restrictions for certain functions, such as ConfigDSN, that differ from the restrictions in UNIX, as follows:
- ODBC on Windows: The keywords and their values should not contain []{}(),;?*=!@ characters, and the value of the DSN keyword cannot consist only of blanks. Because of the registry grammar, keywords and data store names cannot contain the backslash (\) character.
- ODBC on UNIX: The keywords and their values should not contain the []{}(),;?*=!@ \ characters, and the value of the DSN keyword cannot consist only of blanks.

Microsoft ODBC 2.5

The information in this section was taken, with permission, directly from the README.TXT file for Microsoft ODBC 2.5.

Note:

Information that is not applicable for TimesTen developers was cut from the material distributed by Microsoft Corporation.

The standard and extended header files, SQL.H and SQLEXT.H, have been modified in ODBC 2.5 to align with changes in the X/Open CAE specification, as follows:

All material in SQL.H that was specific to Microsoft has been moved to SQLEXT.H. The format of the file was changed so that the data types and return types conform to the X/Open CAE specification.
All material in SQLEXT.H that has been adopted by the standard has been moved to SQL.H.

SQLTYPES.H has been added to provide type definition for program types in ODBC 2.5. SQLTYPES.H defines the handle environment; SQL portable types for C; transfer types for DATE, TIME and TIMESTAMP; and bookmarks.