Teach Yourself Borland C++ in 14 Days - portal

428 Day 12
■ The properties, events, and key methods of the TTable, TQuery, and TStoredProc
components
■ How to use the TBatchMove component to copy rows and create tables
Some Terms You’ll Need to Know
Throughout this chapter, I’ll refer to various elements of the C++Builder database architecture
by name when describing them or how they inter-operate with other elements. So, before
we begin, I need to define some terms so that you’ll understand what I’m saying as we go.
Some of these are C++Builder terms; some are database terms. These may or may not be terms
with which you’re already familiar. Table 12.1 summarizes today’s key terms.
Table 12.1. Common C++Builder database access terms.
Term Description
Table A collection of rows (or entities) in a database. For example, you
might construct an INVOICE table to store invoice entities or rows.
Row A record or an entity in a table. For example, a CUSTOMER table
would contain rows of customer data. Each row would contain
information for a different customer.
Column A field or an attribute that’s contained in the rows of a table.
For example, your INVOICE table might contain a
CustomerNumber column. The CustomerNumber column would be
present in every row in the table.
Borland Database The set of DLLs and support files that allows C++Builder (and
Engine other Borland products) to access databases. The Borland
Database Engine (BDE) saves much of the work normally
associated with building full-featured database applications by
providing a high-level database API that is consistent across all
the DBMS platforms it supports. This developer-friendly
interface is provided in C++Builder’s database controls so that
you rarely have to work directly with the BDE itself.
IDAPI Borland’s Independent Database Application Programming
Interface. It’s the interface whereby applications (including
C++Builder apps) talk to the BDE. Because nearly all necessary
IDAPI calls are made for you by C++Builder’s database components,
you’ll rarely write code that directly references IDAPI.
Instead, you’ll interact with the methods, properties, and events
of C++Builder’s database components, which, in turn, make the
necessary IDAPI calls.