Step 2: Initialize the Application

The second step is to initialize the application, as shown in the following illustration. Exactly what is done here varies with the application.

Shows initializing an ODBC application

At this point, it is common to use SQLGetInfo to discover the capabilities of the driver. For more information, see Considering Database Features to Use.

All applications need to allocate a statement handle with SQLAllocHandle, and many applications set statement attributes, such as the cursor type, with SQLSetStmtAttr. For more information, see Allocating a Statement Handle and Statement Attributes.