The SQL support of Natural combines the flexibility of dynamic SQL support with the high performance of static SQL support.
In contrast to static SQL support, the Natural dynamic SQL support does
not require any special consideration with regard to the operation of the SQL
interface. All SQL statements required to execute an application request are
generated automatically and can be executed immediately with the Natural RUN
command. Before executing a program, you can look at the generated SQL code,
using the LISTSQL
command.
Access to DB2 through Natural has the same form whether dynamic or static SQL support is used. Thus, with static SQL support, the same SQL statements in a Natural program can be executed in either dynamic or static mode. An SQL statement can be coded within a Natural program and, for testing purposes, it can be executed using dynamic SQL. If the test is successful, the SQL statement remains unchanged and static SQL for this program can be generated.
Thus, during application development, the programmer works in dynamic mode and all SQL statements are executed dynamically, whereas static SQL is only created for applications that have been transferred to production status.
