35.13. C++ Applications
ECPG has some limited support for C++ applications. This section describes some caveats.
Theecpg preprocessor takes an input file written in C (or something like C) and embedded SQL commands, converts the embedded SQL commands into C language chunks, and finally generates a.c file. The header file declarations of the library functions used by the C language chunks thatecpg generates are wrapped inextern "C" { ... } blocks when used under C++, so they should work seamlessly in C++.
In general, however, theecpg preprocessor only understands C; it does not handle the special syntax and reserved words of the C++ language. So, some embedded SQL code written in C++ application code that uses complicated features specific to C++ might fail to be preprocessed correctly or might not work as expected.
A safe way to use the embedded SQL code in a C++ application is hiding the ECPG calls in a C module, which the C++ application code calls into to access the database, and linking that together with the rest of the C++ code. SeeSection 35.13.2 about that.
35.13.1. Scope for Host Variables
Theecpg preprocessor understands the scope of variables in C. In the C language, this is rather simple because the scopes of variables is based on their code blocks. In C++, however, the class member variables are referenced in a different code block from the declared position, so theecpg preprocessor will not understand the scope of the class member variables.
For example, in the following case, theecpg preprocessor cannot find any declaration for the variabledbname in thetest method, so an error will occur.
class TestCpp{ EXEC SQL BEGIN DECLARE SECTION; char dbname[1024]; EXEC SQL END DECLARE SECTION; public: TestCpp(); void test(); ~TestCpp();};TestCpp::TestCpp(){ EXEC SQL CONNECT TO testdb1; EXEC SQL SELECT pg_catalog.set_config('search_path', '', false); EXEC SQL COMMIT;}void Test::test(){ EXEC SQL SELECT current_database() INTO :dbname; printf("current_database = %s\n", dbname);}TestCpp::~TestCpp(){ EXEC SQL DISCONNECT ALL;}This code will result in an error like this:
ecpg test_cpp.pgctest_cpp.pgc:28: ERROR: variable "dbname" is not declared To avoid this scope issue, thetest method could be modified to use a local variable as intermediate storage. But this approach is only a poor workaround, because it uglifies the code and reduces performance.
void TestCpp::test(){ EXEC SQL BEGIN DECLARE SECTION; char tmp[1024]; EXEC SQL END DECLARE SECTION; EXEC SQL SELECT current_database() INTO :tmp; strlcpy(dbname, tmp, sizeof(tmp)); printf("current_database = %s\n", dbname);}35.13.2. C++ Application Development with External C Module
If you understand these technical limitations of theecpg preprocessor in C++, you might come to the conclusion that linking C objects and C++ objects at the link stage to enable C++ applications to use ECPG features could be better than writing some embedded SQL commands in C++ code directly. This section describes a way to separate some embedded SQL commands from C++ application code with a simple example. In this example, the application is implemented in C++, while C and ECPG is used to connect to the PostgreSQL server.
Three kinds of files have to be created: a C file (*.pgc), a header file, and a C++ file:
test_mod.pgcA sub-routine module to execute SQL commands embedded in C. It is going to be converted into
test_mod.cby the preprocessor.#include "test_mod.h"#include <stdio.h>voiddb_connect(){ EXEC SQL CONNECT TO testdb1; EXEC SQL SELECT pg_catalog.set_config('search_path', '', false); EXEC SQL COMMIT;}voiddb_test(){ EXEC SQL BEGIN DECLARE SECTION; char dbname[1024]; EXEC SQL END DECLARE SECTION; EXEC SQL SELECT current_database() INTO :dbname; printf("current_database = %s\n", dbname);}voiddb_disconnect(){ EXEC SQL DISCONNECT ALL;}test_mod.hA header file with declarations of the functions in the C module (
test_mod.pgc). It is included bytest_cpp.cpp. This file has to have anextern "C"block around the declarations, because it will be linked from the C++ module.#ifdef __cplusplusextern "C" {#endifvoid db_connect();void db_test();void db_disconnect();#ifdef __cplusplus}#endiftest_cpp.cppThe main code for the application, including the
mainroutine, and in this example a C++ class.#include "test_mod.h"class TestCpp{ public: TestCpp(); void test(); ~TestCpp();};TestCpp::TestCpp(){ db_connect();}voidTestCpp::test(){ db_test();}TestCpp::~TestCpp(){ db_disconnect();}intmain(void){ TestCpp *t = new TestCpp(); t->test(); return 0;}
To build the application, proceed as follows. Converttest_mod.pgc intotest_mod.c by runningecpg, and generatetest_mod.o by compilingtest_mod.c with the C compiler:
ecpg -o test_mod.c test_mod.pgccc -c test_mod.c -o test_mod.o
Next, generatetest_cpp.o by compilingtest_cpp.cpp with the C++ compiler:
c++ -c test_cpp.cpp -o test_cpp.o
Finally, link these object files,test_cpp.o andtest_mod.o, into one executable, using the C++ compiler driver:
c++ test_cpp.o test_mod.o -lecpg -o test_cpp