Mimic SQL Host Variables

In IRIS host variables just exist within embedded SQL

You can supply host variables for Embedded SQL queries only.
Related examples are included in the available documentation

This is a workaround if you don’t / can’t use embedded SQL.
The basic idea is to use PPG to mimic host variables.
A major reason to use PPG is the fact that they get deleted
automatically at the end of process.
Another idea is to avoid conflicts with local variable arrays
and local versus global variable scope.
In addition there is no need for an clean up activity.

In fact it is a set of 3 SQL Methods:

• HDEC to mimic SQL DECLARE @var and SQL SET @var
• HGETV and HGETI to return the variable value as VARCHAR or INT
  As a side feature NULL is returned if the variable wasn’t set of
  declared before if required returning any other data type is rather easy
• HDEL is provided if there raises the unlikely need to delete a host variable

Prerequisites

Make sure you have git and Docker desktop installed.

Installation

Clone/git pull the repo into any local directory

$ git clone https://github.com/rcemper/Mimic-SQL-Host-Variables.git

To build and start the container run:

$ docker compose up -d && docker compose logs -f

To open IRIS console Terminal do:

$ docker-compose exec iris iris session iris
USER>

To access IRIS System Management Portal (SMP)
http://localhost:42773/csp/sys/UtilHome.csp

To access Iterm in browser
http://localhost:42773/iterm/

How to use it

You can run the SQL scripts from SMP/ Explorer / SQL
or from SQL shell in terminal or console

USER>:sql
SQL Command Line Shell
----------------------------------------------------
The command prefix is currently set to: <<nothing>>.
Enter <command>, 'q' to quit, '?' for help.
[SQL]USER>>

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