Function

Summary

Opens a connection to a database.

Package

sql

Signature

connect connection-spec &key if-exists database-type => database

Arguments

connection-spec

The connection specifications.

if-exists

A keyword.

database-type

A database type.

Values

database

A database.

Description

The connect function opens a connection to a database of database-type . The default value for database-type is *default-database-type* . The connection-spec depends on the type of the database to connect to. For databases of type :odbc , the connection specification is a string of the format

" datasource-name / username / password "

where datasource-name is the name of an ODBC datasource, and username and password are a valid username and password. If the datasource does not require a username and password they can be omitted.

The variable *default-database* is set to an instance of the database opened and the instance is returned. The argument if-exists modifies the behavior of connect as follows:

:new

Makes a new connection even if connections to the same database already exist.

:warn-new

Makes a new connection but warns about existing connections.

:error

Makes a new connection but signals an error for existing connections.

:warn-old

Selects old connection if one exists (and warns) or makes a new one.

:old

Selects old connection if one exists or makes a new one.

The default value of if-exists is the value of

*connect-if-exists* .

Example

The following example connects LispWorks to the info database.

(connect "info")

The next example connects to the ODBC database personnel using the username "admin" and the password "secret".

(connect "personnel/admin/secret" :database-type :odbc)

See also

disconnect
status
find-database
database-name
connected-databases