Insert from a fixed binary host variable

To insert the data that a fixed binary host variable contains into an opaque-type column, the code fragment in Figure 1 takes the following steps:

1. Includes the definition of the internal structure of the circle opaque data type.

   The definition of the circle_t internal data structure, which Figure 1 shows, must be available to your IBM® Informix® ESQL/C program. Therefore, the code fragment includes the circle.h header file, which contains the definition of the circle_t structure.

2. Stores the data for the fixed binary host variable into the internal data structure, circle_t.

   The declaration of the fixed binary host variable associates the circle_t internal data structure with the fbin_circle host variable. The code fragment assigns a value to each member of the circle_t data structure.

3. Inserts the data that the fbin_circle host variable contains into the circle_col opaque-type column.

   When the database server executes the INSERT statement, it calls the receive support function for the circle data type (circle_rcv) to perform any translation necessary between the internal format of the data that the Informix ESQL/C client application has sent (circle_t) and the internal format of the circle data type on disk.

To insert a null value into an opaque-type column with a fixed binary host variable, set an indicator variable to -1. The following code fragment inserts a null value into the circle_col column with the fbin_circle host variable:

#include <circle.h>;

EXEC SQL BEGIN DECLARE SECTION;
   fixed binary 'circle' circle_t fbin_circle;
   int circle_ind;
EXEC SQL END DECLARE SECTION;
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circle_ind = -1;
EXEC SQL insert into circle_tab 
   values (:fbin_circle:circle_ind);