Call Level Interface

Call Level Interface

The Call Level Interface (CLI) is a software standard defined in ISO/IEC 9075-3:2003. The Call Level Interface defines how a program should send SQL queries to the database management system (DBMS) and how the returned recordsets should be handled by the application in a consistent way. Developed in the early 1990s, the API was defined only for the C and COBOL programming languages.

The interface is part of what The Open Group refers to as the Common Application Environment, which is intended to be a wide standard for programming open applications, i.e. applications from different programming teams and different vendors that can interoperate in an efficient manner. SQL/CLI provides an international standard implementation-independent CLI to access SQL databases. Client-server tools can easily access databases through Dynamic-link libraries (DLL). It supports and encourages a rich set of client-server tools.

The most widespread use of the CLI standard is the basis of the ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) specification, which is widely used to allow applications to transparently access database systems from different vendors. The current version of the API, ODBC 3.52, incorporates features from both the ISO and X/Open standards (see below).

Read more about Call Level Interface:  History

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