soci/docs/index.md

0001 # SOCI - The C++ Database Access Library
0002
0003 SOCI is a database access library written in C++ that makes an illusion of embedding
0004 SQL queries in the regular C++ code, staying entirely within the Standard C++.
0005
0006 The idea is to provide C++ programmers a way to access SQL databases in the most natural and intuitive way.
0007 If you find existing libraries too difficult for your needs or just distracting, SOCI can be a good alternative.
0008
0009 ## Basic Syntax
0010
0011 The simplest motivating code example for the SQL query that is supposed to retrieve a single row is:
0012
0013 ```cpp
0014 int id = ...;
0015 string name;
0016 int salary;
0017
0018 sql << "select name, salary from persons where id = " << id,
0019         into(name), into(salary);
0020 ```
0021
0022 ## Basic ORM
0023
0024 The following benefits from extensive support for object-relational mapping:
0025
0026 ```cpp
0027 int id = ...;
0028 Person p;
0029
0030 sql << "select first_name, last_name, date_of_birth "
0031        "from persons where id = " << id, into(p);
0032 ```
0033
0034 ## Integrations
0035
0036 Integration with STL is also supported:
0037
0038 ```cpp
0039 Rowset<string> rs = (sql.prepare << "select name from persons");
0040 std::copy(rs.begin(), rs.end(), std::ostream_iterator<std::string>(std::cout, "\n"));
0041 ```
0042
0043 SOCI offers also extensive [integration with Boost](boost.md) datatypes (optional, tuple and fusion) and flexible support for user-defined datatypes.
0044
0045 ## Database Backends
0046
0047 Starting from its 2.0.0 release, SOCI uses the plug-in architecture for
0048 backends - this allows to target various database servers.
0049
0050 Currently (SOCI 4.0.3), backends for following database systems are supported:
0051
0052 * [DB2](backends/db2.md)
0053 * [Firebird](backends/firebird.md)
0054 * [MySQL](backends/mysql.md)
0055 * [ODBC](backends/odbc.md) (generic backend)
0056 * [Oracle](backends/oracle.md)
0057 * [PostgreSQL](backends/postgresql.md)
0058 * [SQLite3](backends/sqlite3.md)
0059
0060 The intent of the library is to cover as many database technologies as possible.
0061 For this, the project has to rely on volunteer contributions from other programmers,
0062 who have expertise with the existing database interfaces and would like to help
0063 writing dedicated backends.
0064
0065 ## Language Bindings
0066
0067 Even though SOCI is mainly a C++ library, it also allows to use it from other programming languages.
0068 Currently the package contains the Ada binding, with more bindings likely to come in the future.