For more detail, see the summary of new features. The archived version of the OTL Web pages is available.

Feature

Comment
04-Dec-2024, (New in OTL 4.0.480 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.12.3 has been released. OTL works with it.
02-Dec-2024, (New in OTL 4.0.480):

  • Copyright notice in the header file (otlv4.h) has been updated with the latest correct information.
01-Dec-2024, (New in OTL 4.0.479):

  • OTL was successfully tested with older versions of Clang: 16.0.6, 17.0.6, and 18.1.8.

  • Better auto-detection of C++ compiler "std" compile options has been implemented in order to detect corresponding compile modes (C++20, C++23 for GNU C++, Clang, and Visual C++).
28-Nov-2024, (New in OTL 4.0.478 (updated 7)):

  • OTL was tested successfully with all latest versions of supported GNU C++ compilers: 11.5, 12.4,13.3, and 14.2.
:
26 -Nov-2024, (New in OTL 4.0.478 (updated 6)):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.12.2 has been released. OTL works with it.
22-Nov-2024, (New in OTL 4.0.478 (updated 5)):

  • Major release of DB2 LUW (12.1) was made available on Nov-14-2024. OTL works with it.
21-Nov-2024, (New in OTL 4.0.478 (updated 4)):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.12.1 has been released. OTL works with it.
17-Nov-2024, (New in OTL 4.0.478 (updated 3)):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.12.0 has been released. OTL works with it.
15-Nov-2024, (New in OTL 4.0.478 (updated 2)):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.11.6 has been released. OTL works with it.
  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.42 has been released. OTL works with it.
  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.68 has been released. OTL works with it.
11-Nov-2024, (New in OTL 4.0.478):

  • OTL introduces the following new #define for compatibility with C++23: #define OTL_CPP_23_ON.
10-Nov-2024, (New in OTL 4.477):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.11.5. OTL works with it.
  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.41. OTL works with it.
  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.67. OTL works with it.
  • GNU C++ 14.2.0. OTL works with it.
  • Clang C++ 18.1.8. OTL works with it.

I was unable to support OTL for medical reasons, my apologies to all OTL users.
01-Feb-2024, (New in OTL 4.0.476 (updated (24))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.8.5 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.33 has been released. OTL works with it.


29-Jul-2023, (New in OTL 4.0.476 (updated (23))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.7.6 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.31 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.56 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • CLANG 17.0.2 has been released. OTL works with it when -Wno-unsafe-buffer-usage is used. CLANG 16 introduced attribute [[clang::unsafe_buffer_usage]] but it's not fully implemented yet. So for now, use -Wno-unsafe-buffer-usage to disable the warning, especially when -Werror is used (treat warnings as errors).

28-Jul-2023, (New in OTL 4.0.476 (updated (22))):

  • GNU C++ 13.2 has been released recently. OTL works with it.

12-Jul-2023, (New in OTL 4.0.476 (updated (21))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.6.5 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.55 was released. OTL works with it.

09-Jul-2023, (New in OTL 4.0.476 (updated (20))):

  • GNU C++ 10.5 has been released recently. OTL works with it.

23-Jun-2023, (New in OTL 4.0.476 (updated (19))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.6.4 has been released. OTL works with it.

14-Jun-2023, (New in OTL 4.0.476 (updated (18))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.6.3 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.27 has been released. OTL works with it.

29-May-2023, (New in OTL 4.0.476 (updated (17))):

  • GNU C++ 11.4 has been released recently. OTL works with it.

26-May-2023, (New in OTL 4.0.476 (updated (16))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.6.2 has been released. OTL works with it.

22-May-2023, (New in OTL 4.0.476 (updated (15))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.6.1 has been released. OTL works with it.

17-May-2023, (New in OTL 4.0.476 (updated (14))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.6.0 has been released. OTL works with it.

10-May-2023, (New in OTL 4.0.476 (updated (13))):

  • GNU C++ 12.3 has been released recently. OTL works with it.

04-May-2023, (New in OTL 4.0.476 (updated (12))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.5.5 has been released. OTL works with it.

28-Apr-2023, (New in OTL 4.0.476 (updated (11))):

  • GNU C++ 13.1 has been released recently. OTL works with it.

15-Apr-2023, (New in OTL 4.0.476 (updated (10))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.5.4 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.26 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.53, and 15.9.54 were released. OTL works with them.

23-Mar-2023, (New in OTL 4.0.476 (updated (9))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.5.3 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • CLANG 16.0.0 just got released. OTL works with it when -Wno-unsafe-buffer-usage is used. CLANG 16 introduced attribute [[clang::unsafe_buffer_usage]] but it's not fully implemented yet. So for now, use -Wno-unsafe-buffer-usage to disable the warning, especially when -Werror is used (treat warnings as errors).

14-Mar-2023, (New in OTL 4.0.476 (updated (8))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.5.2 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.25 has been released. OTL works with it.

06-Mar-2023, (New in OTL 4.0.476 (updated (7)):

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.51, and 15.9.52 were released. OTL works with them.

02-Mar-2023, (New in OTL 4.0.476 (updated (6))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.5.1 has been released. OTL works with it.

24-Feb-2023, (New in OTL 4.0.476 (updated (5))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.5.0 has been released. OTL works with it.

14-Feb-2023, (New in OTL 4.0.476 (updated (4))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.4.5 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.24 has been released. OTL works with it.

12-Feb-2023, (New in OTL 4.0.476 (updated (3))):

  • CLANG 15.0.7 has been released. OTL works with it.

20-Jan-2023, (New in OTL 4.0.476 (updated (2))):

  • Copyrights have been updated for 2023.

10-Jan-2023, (New in OTL 4.0.476 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.4.4 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.23 has been released. OTL works with it.

05-Jan-2023, (New in OTL 4.0.476):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.4.3 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.22 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • CLANG 15.0.6 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • When compiled with G++, OTL doesn't always do "#pragma GCC diagnostic push" correctly. This release of OTL fixes the problem.
16-Nov-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.475 (updated (3))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.4.1 has been released. OTL works with it.

09-Nov-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.475 (updated (2))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.4.0 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.21 has been released. OTL works with it.

19-Oct-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.475 (updated)):

  • CLANG 15.0.3 has been released. OTL works with it.

16-Oct-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.475):

  • This release of OTL sets null terminator characters after calls to strncpy() function in macros OTL_STRCPY_S / OTL_STRNCPY_S to cover the case when strncpy() doesn't write any null terminators (output buffer is not big enough). This only applies to non-Visual C++ compilers such as G++ or CLANG.
12-Oct-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.474 (updated (2))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.3.6 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.20 has been released. OTL works with it.

07-Oct-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.474 (updated)):

  • CLANG 15.0.2 has been released. OTL works with it.

02-Oct-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.474):

  • This release of OTL replaces calls to vsprintf to vsnprintf in function otl_sprintf_s. vsnprintf is less prone to buffer overflows. This only applies to non-Visual C++ compilers such as G++ or CLANG.
30-Sep-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.473):

  • This release of OTL replaces calls to strcpy() and to strcat() in macros OTL_STRCPY_S / OTL_STRCAT_S with calls to strncpy() and strncat(), which are less prone to buffer overflows / more secure. This only applies to non-Visual C++ compilers such as G++ or CLANG.
28-Sep-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.472 (updated (10))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.3.5 has been released. OTL works with it.

20-Sep-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.472 (updated (9))):

  • CLANG 15.0.1 has been released. OTL works with it.

13-Sep-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.472 (updated (8))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.3.4 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.19 has been released. OTL works with it.

07-Sep-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.472 (updated (7))):

  • CLANG 15.0.0 has been released. OTL works with it.

01-Sep-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.472 (updated (6))):

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.50 was released on Aug-09-2022. OTL works with it.

31-Aug-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.472 (updated (5))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.3.3 has been released. OTL works with it.

24-Aug-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.472 (updated (4))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.3.2 has been released. OTL works with it.

19-Aug-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.472 (updated (3))):

  • G++ 12.2 has been released. OTL works with it.|

18-Aug-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.472 (updated (2))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.3.1 has been released. OTL works with it.

09-Aug-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.472 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.3.0 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.18 has been released. OTL works with it.

14-Jul-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.472):

  • This release of OTL locally suppresses g++ warning -Wformat-nonliteral in a few places because OTL composes format strings for calls to secure printf dynamically, and the warning, when all g++ warnings are treated as errors, causes the build to break. It's safe to suppress -Wformat-nonliteral warning in this particular context.
13-Jul-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.471 (updated (7))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.2.6 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.17 has been released. OTL works with it.

28-Jun-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.471 (updated (6))):

  • G++ 10.4 has been released. OTL works with it.

26-Jun-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.471 (updated (5))):

  • CLANG 14.0.6 has been released. OTL works with it.

23-Jun-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.471 (updated (4))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.2.5 has been released. OTL works with it.

15-Jun-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.471 (updated (3))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.2.4 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.16 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.49 has been released. OTL works with it.

11-Jun-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.471 (updated (2))):

  • CLANG 14.0.5 has been released. OTL works with it.

10-Jun-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.471 (updated)):

  • CLANG 14.0.4 has been released. OTL works with it.

02-Jun-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.471):
31-May-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.470 (updated (15))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.2.3 has been released. OTL works with it.

27-May-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.470 (updated (14))):

  • GNU C++ 9.5 has been released. OTL works with it.

25-May-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.470 (updated (13))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.2.2 has been released. OTL works with it.

18-May-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.470 (updated (12))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.2.1 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.15 has been released. OTL works with it.

11-May-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.470 (updated (11))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.2.0 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.14 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.48 has been released. OTL works with it.

06-May-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.470 (updated (10))):

  • GNU C++ 12.1 has been released. OTL works with it.

27-Apr-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.470 (updated (9))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.1.6 has been released. OTL works with it.

21-Apr-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.470 (updated (8))):

  • GNU C++ 11.3 has been released. OTL works with it.

20-Apr-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.470 (updated (7))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.1.5 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.13 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.47 has been released. OTL works with it.

13-Apr-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.470 (updated (6))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.1.4 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.12 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.46 has been released. OTL works with it.

01-Apr-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.470 (updated (5))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.1.3 has been released. OTL works with it.

27-Mar-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.470 (updated (4))):

  • CLANG 14.0.0 has been released. OTL works with it.

22-Mar-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.470 (updated (3))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.1.2 has been released. OTL works with it.

10-Mar-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.470 (updated (2))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.1.1 has been released. OTL works with it.

09-Mar-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.470 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.11 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.45 has been released. OTL works with it.
05-Mar-2022, (New in OTL 4.0.470):

  • A G++ 11.2 compilation warning was reported. OTL 4.0.470 fixes the warning.
22-Feb-2022, (New in OTL 4.0.469):

  • A G++ 11.2 compilation warning was reported. OTL 4.0.469 fixes the warning.
16-Feb-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.468 (updated (18))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.1.0 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • CLANG 13.0.1 has been released. OTL works with it.

09-Feb-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.468 (updated (17))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.0.6 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.10 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.44 has been released. OTL works with it.


21-Jan-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.468 (updated (16)):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.0.5 has been released. OTL works with it.

12-Jan-2022. (New in OTL 4.0.468 (updated (15))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.9 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.43 has been released. OTL works with it.

05-Jan-2022 (New in OTL 4.0.468 (updated(14))):

  • Copyrights have been updated for 2022.

17-Dec-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.468 (updated (13))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.0.4 has been released. OTL works with it.

15-Dec-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.468 (updated (12))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.0.3 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.8 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.42 has been released. OTL works with it.

01-Dec-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.468 (updated (11))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.0.2 has been released. OTL works with it.

17-Nov-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.468 (updated (10))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.0.1 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.7 has been released. OTL works with it.

13-Nov-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.468 (updated (9))):

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.41 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.6 has been released. OTL works with it.

08-Nov-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.468 (updated (8))):

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.0.0 has been released. OTL works with it.

13-Oct-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.468 (updated (7))):

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.40 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.5 has been released. OTL works with it.

07-Oct-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.468 (updated (6))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.4 has been released. OTL works with it.

05-Oct-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.468 (updated (5))):

  • CLANG 13.0.0 has been released. OTL works with it.

15-Sep-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.468 (updated (4))):

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.39 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.3 has been released. OTL works with it.

26-Aug-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.468 (updated (3))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.2 has been released. OTL works with it.

17-Aug-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.468 (updated (2))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.1 has been released. OTL works with it.

11-Aug-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.468 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.38 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11.0 has been released. OTL works with it.

03-Aug-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.468):

  •  A bug in internal "read_blob" function was reported when OTL was used with Oracle. The bug is fixed in this release of OTL.
28-Jul-21. (New in OTL 4.0.467 (updated)):

  • GNU C++ 11.2 has been released. OTL works with it.

27-Jul-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.467):

  • A CLANG 12.0.1 warning was reported. The warning is fixed in this release of OTL.
21-Jul-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.466 (updated (2))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.10.4 has been released. OTL 4.0.466 works with it.

14-Jul-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.466 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.37 has been released. OTL 4.0.466 works with it.

10-Jul-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.466):

  • A small typo was reported in an OTL tracing statement. The typo is fixed in this release of OTL.

  • CLANG 12.0.1 has been released. OTL works with it.
30-Jun-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.465 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.10.3 has been released. OTL 4.0.465 works with it.

25-Jun-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.465):

  • A problem was reported that sometimes when OTL was used with Oracle, the OTL exception didn't have the right error messages. The problem is fixed in this release of OTL.
16-Jun-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.464):

  • A bug was reported in otl_long_string move assignment operator, when C++11/14/17/20 OTL features were enabled, that the buffer size of the source long string was not carried over correctly. The bug is fixed in this release of OTL.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.10.2 has been released. OTL 4.0.464 works with it.
09-Jun-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.463 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.10.1 has been released. OTL works with it.

07-Jun-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.463):

  • A couple of warnings was reported from Visual Studio 2019's static code analyzer. The warnings are fixed in this release of OTL.
06-Jun-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.462 (updated (14))):

  • Oracle Client 21c was released some time ago for non-cloud OSes. OTL works with it when #define OTL_ORA19C is used.

01-Jun-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.462 (updated (13))):

  • GNU C++ 9.4 has been released. OTL works with it.

25-May-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.462 (updated (12))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.10.0 has been released. OTL works with it.

19-May-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.462 (updated (11))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.9.6 has been released. OTL works with it.

15-May-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.462 (updated (10))):

  • GNU C++ 8.5 has been released. OTL works with it.

12-May-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.462 (updated (9))):

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.36 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.9.5 has been released. OTL works with it.

27-Apr-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.462 (updated (8))):

  • GNU C++ 11.1 has been released. OTL works with it.

18-Apr-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.462 (updated (7))):

  • CLANG 12.0.0 has been released. OTL works with it.

14-Apr-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.462 (updated (6))):

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.35 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.9.4 has been released. OTL works with it.

08-Apr-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.462 (updated (5))):

  • GNU C++ 10.3 has been released. OTL works with it.

31-Mar-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.462 (updated (4))):

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 16.9.3 has been released. OTL works with it.

16-Mar-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.462 (updated (3))):

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 16.9.2 has been released. OTL works with it.

11-Mar-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.462 (updated (2))):

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.34 has been released. OTL works with it.

10-Mar-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.462 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.9.1 has been released. OTL works with it.

09-Mar-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.462):

  • A problem was reported that when otl_connect::direct_exec() function is used with SQLite ODBC driver, the function returns 0 when it's supposed to return a positive integer value. This release is introducing the following new #define to fix the problem: #define OTL_ODBC_LEGACY_RPC.
03-Маr-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.461 (updated (3))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.9.0 has been released. OTL works with it.

28-Feb-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.461 (updated (2))):

  • CLANG 11.1.0 has been released. OTL works with it.

25-Feb-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.461 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.8.6 has been released. OTL works with it.

25-Feb-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.461):

  • A few Coverity warnings were reported in the OTL header file. The warnings are fixed in this release.
11-Feb-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.460 (updated (2))):

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.33 has been released by speedy Microsoft. OTL works with it.

10-Feb-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.460 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.32 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.8.5 has been released. OTL works with it.

09-Feb-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.460):

  • Coverity warnings were reported in the OTL header file. The warnings are fixed in this release.
15-Jan-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.459 (updated (12))):

  • CLANG 11.0.1 has been released. OTL works with it.

13-Jan-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.459 (updated (11))):

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.31 has been released. OTL works with it.

12-Jan-2021. (New in OTL 4.0.459 (updated (10))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.8.4 has been released. OTL works with it.

09-Dec-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.459 (updated (9))):

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.30 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.8.3 has been released. OTL works with it.

20-Nov-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.459 (updated (8))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.8.2 has been released. OTL works with it.

13-Nov-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.459 (updated (7))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.8.1 has been released. OTL works with it.

11-Nov-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.459 (updated (6))):

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.29 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.8.0 has been released. OTL works with it.

28-Oct-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.459 (updated (5))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.7.7 has been released. OTL works with it.

14-Oct-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.459 (updated (4))):

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.28 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.7.6 has been released. OTL works with it.

13-Oct-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.459 (updated (3))):

  • CLANG 11.0.0 has been released. OTL works with it.

29-Sep-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.459 (updated (2))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.7.5 has been released. OTL works with it.

21-Sep-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.459 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.7.4 has been released. OTL works with it.

15-Sep-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.459):

  • A compile error was reported with Visual Studio 2010. This release of OTL fixes the error.
09-Sep-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.458 (updated (3))):

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.27 has been released. OTL works with it.

08-Sep-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.458 (updated (2))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.7.3 has been released. OTL works with it.

20-Aug-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.458 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.7.2 has been released. OTL works with it.

17-Aug-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.458):

  • A Coverity "NULL dereference" warning was reported. This release of OTL fixes the warning.
16-Aug-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.457 (updated (6))):

  • CLANG 10.0.1 has been released. OTL builds clean with it when -Wno-suggested-descructor-override and -Wno-suggested-override are used.

15-Aug-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.457 (updated (5))):

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.26 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.7.1 has been released. OTL works with it.

06-Aug-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.457 (updated (4))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.7.0 has been released. OTL works with it.

23-Jul-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.457 (updated (3))):

  • GNU C++ 10.2 has been released. OTL works with it. CLANG guys, where are you, slackers? Where is your CLANG 10.0.1?

22-Jul-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.457 (updated (2))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.6.5 has been released. OTL works with it.

15-Jul-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.457 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.25 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.6.4 has been released. OTL works with it.

03-Jul-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.457)

  • A suggested Oracle specific patch was merged into the mainstream OTL. The patch extends otl_connect::session_begin() with an extra parameter authp that could be used for Oracle session migrations. The new otl_connect::session_begin() is backward compatible.
01-Jul-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.456 (updated (3))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.6.3 has been released. OTL works with it.

11-Jun-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.456 (updated (2))):

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.24 has been released. OTL works with it.

10-Jun-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.456 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.6.2 has been released. OTL works with it.

02-Jun-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.456):

  • A problem was reported that otl_stream::flush() function sometimes doesn't flush correctly. It turns out to be a problem with g++ 4.7.x that have a thread unsafe function std::uncaught_exception(), which may return true when an exception is in progress in a thread different from the current thread. otl_stream::flush() calls the function to determine if stack unwinding is in progress, and if it is, flush() clears out otl_stream's dirty buffer in order to avoid a call to std::terminate() for cases when a database error happens in otl_stream's destructor. This release of OTL disables the call to std::uncaught_exception() when #define OTL_DESTRUCTORS_DO_NOT_THROW is used because it's safe to do so. It is recommended for situations when g++ 4.7.x is still in use in case this kind of problem occurs to convert OTL based C++ code to use #define OTL_DESTRUCTORS_DO_NOT_THROW.
01-Jun-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.455 (updated (7))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.6.1 has been released. OTL works with it.

19-May-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.455 (updated (6))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.6.0 has been released. OTL works with it.

13-May-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.455 (updated (5))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.5.5 has been released. OTL works with it.

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.23 has been released. OTL works with it.

07-May-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.455 (updated (4))):

  • G++ 10.1 has been released. OTL works with it.

15-Apr-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.455 (updated (3))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.5.4 as well as Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.22 have been released. OTL works with them.

07-Apr-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.455 (updated (2))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.5.3 has been released. OTL works with it.

01-Apr-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.455 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.5.2 has been released. OTL works with it.

26-Mar-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.455):

  • CLANG 10.0.0 has been released. This version of OTL fixes CLANG's compiler warnings.
24-Mar-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.454 (updated (7))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.5.1 has been released. OTL works with it.

17-Mar-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.454 (updated (6))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.5.0 has been released by super-duper one week agile iteration Microsoft. OTL works fine with it.

12-Mar-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.454 (updated (5))):

  • G++ 9.3 has been released. OTL works with it.

11-Mar-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.454 (updated (4))):

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.21 has been released. OTL works with it.

10-Mar-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.454 (updated (3))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.4.6 has been released. OTL works with it.

04-Mar-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.454 (updated (2))):

  • G++ 8.4 has been released. OTL works with it.

13-Feb-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.454 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.20 has been released. Visual Studio 2019 version 16.4.5 has been released. OTL keeps working.
08-Feb-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.454):

  • A Klocwork warning was reported. This release of OTL fixes the warning.
31-Jan-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.453 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.4.4 has been released. This version of OTL works fine with it.

20-Jan-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.453):
16-Jan-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.452 (updated (3))):

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.19 has been released. This version of OTL works fine with it.

14-Jan-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.452 (updated (2))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.4.3 has been released. This version of OTL works fine with it.

11-Jan-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.452 (updated)):

  • CLANG 9.0.1 was released at the end of 2019. I've been asked the question whether or not OTL supports CLANG 9.0.1. The answer is Yes: OTL 4.0.452 compiles clean with CLANG 9.0.1 and the OTL unit test suite runs fine when built with CLANG 9.0.1.

10-Jan-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.452):
02-Jan-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.451 (updated (2))):

  • I was asked to add the current version of OTL (OTL 4.0.451) to the list of archived older versions of OTL for download.

01-Jan-2020. (New in OTL 4.0.451 (updated)):

31-Dec-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.451):

  • Access through  a NULL pointer (nullptr) was reported to happen sometimes in bool operator!=(const otl_for_range_loop_odbc_stream_adapter...), which is an OTL internal function. The function is used in the  OTL implementation for C++11 for-range loops. The problem is fixed in this release. OTL 4.0.450 is archived and available for download along with other older versions of OTL. Happy New Year, everybody!
17-Dec-2019. (New in OTL 4.450 (updated)):

  • Microsoft "update diarrhea" of Visual Studio 2019 updates is not going to subside anytime in the nearest future, is it? Visual Studio 2019 16.4.2 is out, so OTL works fine with it.

16-Dec-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.450):

  • This release introduces support for std::span<> (introduced in C++20),  under the following new #define OTL_CPP_20_ON, and #define  OTL_STREAM_WITH_STD_SPAN_ON. For more detail, see also updated code examples 770 (MS SQL), 771 (DB2), and 772 (Oracle). OTL code examples for other database types can be easily made from the code examples above. At the moment only the latest versions of CLANG support std::span<>. As C++ compilers implement more C++20 features, OTL will add more support for C++20.

    OTL stream operator <<, that takes std::span<> as parameters, iterates over user defined std::span<>. OTL 4.0.449 is archived and available for download along with other older versions of OTL.
11-Dec-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.449 (updated (5))):

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.18 has been released. OTL works fine with it.

10-Dec-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.449 (updated (4))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.4.1 has been released. OTL works fine with it.

03-Dec-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.449 (updated (3))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.4.0 has been released. OTL works fine with it.

21-Nov-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.449 (updated (2))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3.10 has been released. OTL works fine with it.

16-Nov-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.449 (updated)):

  • I was asked to provide secondary links to a few previous versions of OTL. Check the Download page for more detail.

15-Nov-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.449):

  • GNU C++ 7.5 has been recently released. This version of OTL fixes the GNU C++ 7.5 compilation warnings.
12-Nov-2019. (New in OTL 4.4.448 (updated (6))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3.9 has been released. OTL works fine with it.

07-Nov-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.448 (updated (5))):

  • A question was asked whether OTL compiled when -std=c++2a was used with the latest GNU C++ (9.2) and the latest CLANG C++ (9.0.0). The answer is:Yes, it compiles. Only OTL_CPP_17_ON needs to be used.

05-Nov-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.448 (updated (4))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3.8 has been released. OTL works fine with it.

05-Nov-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.448 (updated (3))):

  • MS SQL 2020 just got released. OTL works fine with it.

29-Oct-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.448 (updated (2))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 update 16.3.7 has been released. OTL works fine with it.

23-Oct-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.448 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2019 update 16.3.6 has been released. OTL works fine with it.

19-Oct-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.448):

  • A few clang-tidy warnings were reported. This release of OTL fixes the warnings.
16-Oct-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.447 (updated (2))):

Microsoft just released Visual Studio 2019 update 16.3.5, Visual Studio 2017 update 15.9.17. OTL works fine with them.

12-Oct-2019. (New in OTL 4.4.447 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2019 update 16.3.4 has been released. OTL works fine with it.

11-Oct-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.447):

  • Code cleanup to reduce "noise" from multiple frequent C++ compiler updates.
09-Oct-2019. (New in OTL 4.4.446 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2019 update 16.3.3 has been released. OTL works fine with it.

05-Oct-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.446):

  • Internal code cleanup to reduce "noise" from multiple frequent C++ compiler updates.
02-Oct-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.445 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2019 update 16.3.2 (a.k.a. Visual Studio "update diarrhea") has been released. OTL works fine with it.

28-Sep-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.445):

  • A GNU C++ 4.8 compiler warning (0 as NULL pointer, when -Wzero-as-null-pointer-constant is used) was reported. The warning is fixed in this release of OTL.
25-Sep-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.444 (updated(2))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 update 16.3.1 has been released. OTL works fine with it.

24-Sep-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.444 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2019 update 16.3.0 has been released. OTL works fine with it.

23-Sep-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.4444):

  • This release of OTL introduces a new customization point: #define OTL_STREAM_CUSTOM_CHAR_LTLT_OPERATORS. It can be used to replace OTL default otl_stream& operator<<(const char) and otl_stream& operator<<(const unsigned char) operators.
20-Sep-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.443 (updated (2))):

  • CLANG 9.0.0 has been recently released. OTL works fine with it.

10-Sep-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.443 (updated)):

  • Microsoft just released Visual Studio 2019 update 16.2.5, Visual Studio 2017 update 15.9.16. OTL works fine with them.

10-Sep-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.443):
06-Sep-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.442 (updated (10))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 update 16.2.4 has been released. OTL works fine with it.

20-Aug-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.442 (updated (9))):

  • Db2 LUW 11.5 got released in the last couple of months. OTL works fine with it.

20-Aug-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.442 (updated (8))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 update 16.2.3 has been released. OTL works fine with it.

15-Aug-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.442 (updated (7))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 update 16.2.2 and 2017 update 15.9.15 have been released. OTL works just fine.

12-Aug-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.442 (updated (6))):

  • GNU C++ 9.2 has been released recently. This version of OTL works with it just fine.

07-Aug-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.442 (updated (5))):

  • Microsoft released a servicing update for Visual Studio 2019 (version 16.2.1). This version of OTL works with it just fine.

06-Aug-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.442 (updated (4))):

  • CLANG 8.0.1 has been released lately. This version of OTL builds clean with it, and the usual for the OTL unit test suite.

25-Jul-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.442 (updated (3))):

  • Microsoft released update 2 for Visual Studio 2019 (16.2). This version of OTL builds clean with it, and the usual for the OTL unit test suite.

21-Jul-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.442 (updated (2))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 servicing update (16.1.6) as well as Visual Studio 2017 servicing update (15.9.14) have been released recently. This version of OTL builds clean with them and OTL unit tests run fine.

3-Jul-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.442 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2019 just released a new servicing update (version 16.1.5). This version of OTL compiles clean when built with it and OTL unit tests run fine.

28-Jun-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.442):

  • Oracle 19c has recently been released for Windows. This version of OTL compiles clean with the Oracle 19c Call Interface header files, and OTL unit tests run fine.

  • A problem was reported that when OTL was used with SQL Server 2017, when a direct execution of an SQL statement that referred to a non-existent table was done, OTL didn't throw any exception. The problem is fixed in the version of OTL.
26-Jun-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.441 (updated (3))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 has been updated recently to version 16.1.4. This version of OTL compiles clean with it, and OTL unit tests run fine when built with it. Enjoy!

12-Jun-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.441 (updated (2))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 servicing update 16.1.3 and Visual Studio 2017 update 15.9.13 have been released recently. This version of OTL compiles clean with them, and OTL unit tests run fine when built with them.

06-Jun-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.441 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2019 servicing update 16.1.2 has been released recently. This version of OTL compiles clean with it, and OTL unit tests run fine when built with it.

27-May-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.441):

  • Oracle 19c on prem was released in April  2020 for Linux and Solaris. I was asked when OTL would start supporting Oracle 19c. This version of OTL introduces the following new #define to support Oracle 19c: #define OTL_ORA19C.

  • Visual Studio 2019 servicing update 16.1.1 has been released recently. This version of OTL compiles clean with it, and OTL unit tests run fine when built with it.
22-May-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.440 (updated (3))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 Update 1 (version 16.1.0) has been released recently. This version of OTL builds clean with it, and OTL unit test run fine when with with it.

16-May-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.440 (updated (2))):

  • Visual Studio 2019 servicing update 16.0.4 and Visual Studio 2017 servicing update 15.9.12 have been released recently. This version of OTL builds clean with them, and OTL unit tests run fine when built with them.

14-May-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.440 (updated)):

  • CLANG 7.1.0 has been released recently. This version of OTL builds clean with it, and OTL unit tests run fine when built with it.

03-May-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.440):

  • Visual Studio 2019 servicing updates 16.0.1, 16.0.2, and 16.0.3 got released for the last 30 days. This version of OTL builds clean with them, and OTL unit tests run fine when built with them.

  • GNU C++ 9.1 has been released recently. This version of OTL fixes a g++ 9.1 compiler warning.

03-Apr-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.439 (updated (3))):

  • Another servicing update (15.9.11) has been released for Visual Studio 2017. This version of OTL builds clean with it, and OTL unit tests run fine when built with it.

02-Apr-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.439 (updated (2))):

  • Visual C++ 2020 has been released. This version of OTL builds clean with it, and OTL unit tests run fine when built with it.

27-Mar-2019. (New in OTL 4.0.439 (updated)):

  • Another servicing update (15.9.10) has been released for Visual Studio 2017. This version of OTL builds clean with it, and OTL unit tests run fine when built with it.

21-Mar-2019, (New in OTL 4.0.439):

  • CLANG 8.0.0 has been released. This release of OTL suppresses a new compiler warning about redundant semicolons (-Wextra-semi-stmt).
20-Mar-2019, (New in OTL 4.0.438):

  • Another servicing update (15.9.9) has been released for Visual Studio 2017. This version of OTL builds clean with it, and OTL unit tests run fine when built with it.

  • A problem was reported when OTL / OCI was used with Oracle Geometry (#define OTL_ORA_SDO_GEOMETRY) that read_geometry() function didn't properly check "elem_info" and "ordinates" for NULL. The problem is fixed in this release of OTL.
08-Mar-2019, (New in OTL 4.0.437 (updated (3))):

  • Another servicing update (15.9.8) has been released for Visual Studio 2017. This version of OTL builds clean with it, and OTL unit tests run fine when built with it.

  • A new entry has been added to the OTL F.A.Q.

22-Feb-2019, (New in OTL 4.0.437 (updated (2))):

  • G++ 8.3 has been released recently. This version of OTL builds clean with it, and OTL unit tests run fine when built with it.

15-Feb-2019, (New in OTL 4.0.437 (updated)):

  • Another servicing update (15.9.7) has been released for Visual Studio 2017. This version of OTL builds clean with it, and OTL unit tests run fine when built with it.

06-Feb-2019, (New in OTL 4.0.437):
27-Jan-2019, (New in OTL 4.0.436 updated (9))):

  • Another servicing update (15.9.6) has been released for Visual Studio 2017. This version of OTL builds clean with it, and OTL unit tests run fine when built with it.

10-Jan-2019, (New in OTL 4.0.436 updated (8))):

  • Another servicing update (15.9.5) has been released for Visual Studio 2017. This version of OTL builds clean with it, and OTL unit tests run fine when built with it. Also, copyright (C) notices in the OTL header file and the HTML files have been updated to 2020.

24-Dec-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.436 updated (7))):

  • CLANG 7.0.1 has just been released. This version of OTL builds clean with it, and OTL unit tests run fine when built with it. Happy Holidays everybody!

12-Dec-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.436 (updated (6))):

  • Another servicing update (15.9.4) has been released for Visual Studio 2017. This version of OTL builds clean with it, and OTL unit tests run fine when built with it.

06-Dec-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.436 (updated (5))):

  • G++ 7.4 has been released recently. This version of OTL builds clean with it, and OTL unit tests run fine when built with it.

01-Dec-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.436 (updated (4))):

  • Another servicing update (15.9.3) has been released for Visual Studio 2017. This version of OTL builds clean with it, and OTL unit tests run fine when built with it.

21-Nov-2018, (New in OTL4.0.436 (updated (3))):

  • Another servicing update (15.9.2) has been released for Visual Studio 2017. This version of OTL builds clean with it, and OTL unit tests run fine when built with it.

17-Nov-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.436 (updated(2))):

  • Microsoft released Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.1 only a couple of days after VS 15.9.0. I already received a few questions about it. This version of OTL builds clean with it, and OTL unit tests run fine when built with it.

15-Nov-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.436 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9.0 has been released. This version of OTL builds clean with it, and OTL unit tests run fine when built with it.

14-Nov-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.436):

  • This release of OTL introduces the following new customization point for the OTL header file: #define OTL_THROW.
09-Nov-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.435):

  • This release of OTL introduces a couple of new customization points for more flexible variable type checking as the following new #defines: OTL_CHECK_IN_TYPE_FUNC, OTL_CHECK_OUT_TYPE_FUNC. The rationale here is to provide more flexibility for developers, and to keep backward compatibility by default.

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.8.9 has been released recently. This version of OTL compiles clean with it, and OTL unit tests run fine when built with it.
28-Oct-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.434 (updated (2))):

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.8.8 has been released. This version of OTL builds clean with it. OTL unit tests run fine when built with it.

26-Oct-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.434 (updated)):

  • GNU C++ 6.5 has been released recently. This version of OTL builds clean with it, and OTL unit test suite runs fine when built with it. 

24-Oct-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.434):
17-Oct-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.433):

  • A CLANG 7.0.0 static code analyzer warning was reported against OTL 4.0.432. The warning is fixed in this release of OTL.
05-Oct-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.432 (updated (4))):

  • Visual Studio 15.8.6 is out. OTL builds clean with it, and OTL unit test suite checks out when built with it.

19-Sep-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.432 (updated (3))):

  • Now it's CLANG's turn to release. OTL unit test suite runs fine when built with CLANG 7.0.0.

17-Sep-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.432 (updated (2))):

  • Microsoft keeps cranking out more updates for Visual Studio 2017, and developers keep asking whether the latest and greatest version of Visual Studio 2017 is supported by OTL. Since there is no way of knowing what breaks next, it always makes sense to ask the same question. The answer to it this time around is Yes. Enjoy while you can!

08-Sep-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.432 (updated)):

  • Oracle 18c on prem was released in the second half of August, 2018. The OTL unit test suite runs fine against an actual Oracle 18c database server when built with Oracle 18c Client header files and object libraries.

06-Sep-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.432):

  • A suggestion was made that since GNU C++ 4.4 supported a subset of C++11, OTL should use supported C++11 (by GNU C++ 4.4) features when GNU C++ 4.4 is using -std=c++0x. This OTL release automatically enables support for std::tuples and std::array<char,N> / std::array<char16_t,N>, which are supported by GNU C++ 4.4 when it's using -std=c++0x. The rationale for supporting GNU C++ 4.4 is that it's the default C++ compiler for RHEL 6.x / CentOS 6.x and it's the legacy C++ compiler for RHEL 7.x / CentOS 7.x.
19-Aug-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.431):

  • A compilation error was reported when #define OTL_ANSI_CPP_11_ENUM_IS_SUPPORTED (an undocumented internal #define) was enabled outside if the otlv4.h header file. The problem is fixed in this release.

15-Aug-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.430 (updated)):

  • It's that time again, folks, and its name is Visual Studio 15.8. This version of OTL builds clean with it, and the OTL unit test suite has no problem running. Enjoy!

04-Aug-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.430):

  • An std::bad_alloc exception was reported when OTL was used with Microsoft SQL Server under certain conditions. The problem is fixed in this release.

  • Visual Studio 2017 got a new update recently: 15.7.6. This version of OTL compiles clean with VS 15.7.6 and all OTL unit tests run fine when built with VS 15.7.6.
26-Jul-2018, (New in 4.0.429 (updated (2)):

  • GNU C++ 8.2 has been released recently. This version of OTL builds clean with it, and the OTL unit test suite runs fine when built with it.

22-Jul-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.429 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2017 got a new update recently: 15.7.5. This version of OTL compiles clean with VS 15.7.5 and all OTL unit tests run fine when built with VS 15.7.5.

13-Jul-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.429):

  • This release introduces support for std::variant<> (introduced in C++17),  under #define OTL_CPP_17_ON or higher, and when the following new #define is enabled: OTL_STREAM_WITH_STD_VARIANT_ON. For more detail, see also updated code examples 770 (MS SQL), 771 (DB2), and 772 (Oracle). OTL code examples for other database types can be easily made from the code examples above.

    OTL stream operators <</>> that take std::variant<> as parameters, can iterate over user defined std::variant.
06-Jul-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.428 (updated)):

  • CLANG 6.0.1 has been released recently. This version of OTL builds clean with CLANG 6.0.1 and all OTL unit tests run fine when built with CLANG 6.0.1.

29-Jun-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.428):

  • This release of OTL fixes an incorrect comment that confused some people.
23-Jun-2018, (New in 4.0.427 (updated)):

  • Same question different day. Answer is Yes (OTL works with Visual Studio 15.7.4). Enjoy your summer!

09-Jun-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.427):

  • A suggestion was made to implement OTL support for Oracle 18c. Oracle 18c Client is already available on prem. Oracle Server 18c is getting released on prem in July 2018. So, now is a good time to introduce OTL support for OCI 18c. This version of OTL is introducing the following new #define: OTL_ORA18C. Later on OTL may release more version specific features, stay tuned.
03-Jun-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.426 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.7.3 was released 13 days ago, and the same question popped up again whether or not. The answer is: Yes.

31-May-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.426):

  • A problem was reported that when old versions Visual Studio 2017 were used (before Update 3), OTL didn't automatically recognize them  as C++11 compilers. The problem is fixed in this release of OTL.
23-May-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.425 (updated (3)):

  • CLANG 5.0.2 has been released recently. This version of OTL builds clean with it, and OTL unit test suite runs fine when built with it. Enjoy!

18-May-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.425 (updated (2)):

  • Visual Studio 2017 Update 7, sub-Update 1 (version 15.7.1) has been released recently, and the usual question was asked whether OTL supported it or not. OTL unit test suite compiles clean with it, and the unit test  runs fine when built with it. So, the answer to the question is: Yes.

08-May-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.425 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2017 Update 7 (version 15.7) has been released recently. This version of OTL compiles clean with it, and the OTL unit test suite runs fine when built with it.

03-May-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.425):

  • GNU C++ 8.1 has been released recently. This version of OTL fixes all g++ 8.1 compilation issues. OTL unit test suite runs fine when built with g++ 8.1.
13-Apr-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.424):
07-Apr-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.423):

  • An enhancement to otl_connect_pool class was suggested. The enhancement is that the connect pool should grow to its maximum size in specified increments. This release of OTL adds the following new parameter to the general purpose constructor and open() function: grow_pool_in_increments.
05-Apr-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.422):

  • A problem was reported in otl_connect_pool class. The problem is that the pool doesn't properly grow to its maximum capacity. The bug is fixed in this release. Ignore_errors parameter was added to the otl_connect_pool::get() function. The function may throw an otl_exception. Ignore_errors is initialized to true for backward compatibility.
28-Mar-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.421 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2017 Update 6, version 15.6.4 has been released as fast as can possibly be, and the question whether OTL supports it or not has already been asked. This version of OTL compiles clean with VC++ 2017 (version 15.6.4) and the OTL unit test suite runs fine when built with VC++ 2017 (version 15.6.4).

24-Mar-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.421):

  • This version of OTL enhances its use of C++17 fold expressions and constexpr ifs for C++ compilers that have fixed bugs in the support for the features: g++ 7.0 or higher, Visual C++ 2017 Update 6 or higher, Clang 6.0.0 or higher. C++17 fold expressions and constexpr ifs are more compile time efficient compared with C++11 compile time recursion.
15-Mar-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.420 (updated (5))):

  • Visual Studio 2017 Update 6, Version 15.6 has been recently released. This version of OTL builds clean with Visual Studio 15.6, and the OTL unit test suite runs fine.

08-Mar-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.420 (updated(4))):

  • CLANG 6.0.0 has just been released. This version of OTL builds clean with CLANG 6.0.0, and the OTL unit test suite runs fine.

02-Mar-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.420 (updated(3))):

  • Visual Studio 2017, Version 15.5.7 has been recently released. This version of OTL builds clean with Visual Studio 15.5.7, and the OTL unit test suite runs fine.

25-Jan-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.420 (updated(2))):

  • GNU C++ 7.3 has been recently released. This version of OTL builds clean with G++ 7.3, and the OTL unit test suite runs fine when built with G++ 7.3.

18-Jan-2018, (New in OTL 4.0.420 (updated)):

  • A new Q&A has been added to the OTL F.A.Q. for 64-bit SQLite3.

31-Dec-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.420):

  • It's time to update the copyright messages. Happy New Year, everybody!
21-Dec-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.419 (updated (2))):

  • CLANG 5.0.1 has recently been released. This version of OTL builds clean with CLANG 5.0.1, and the OTL unit test suite runs fine.

07-Dec-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.419 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2017 update 5 (version 15.5) has been released recently. This version of OTL builds clean with VC++2017/15.5, and the OTL unit test suite runs fine.

25-Nov-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.419):

  • A couple more of VC++ 6.0 specific workarounds have been reported in the OTL header file. This release removes redundant code.
24-Nov-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.418 (updated (2))):

  • Visual Studio 2017 version 15.4.4 is out and a question was asked whether OTL supports it or not. This release of OTL compiles clean and all OTL unit tests run fine when built with VC++2017 version 15.4.4. For people  in USA, enjoy the holiday!

23-Nov-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.418 (updated)):

  • A question was asked about OTL support for Visual C++ 6.0 (which had been released in 1996). As of OTL 4.0.418, OTL doesn't support VC++ 6.0 any more. However those who still need OTL support for VC++6.0, can download OTL 4.0.417 (last OTL release with support for VC++6.0) here.

09-Nov-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.418):

  • Code refactoring: old workarounds required for VC++ 6.0 and other C++ compilers from 1990s have been removed and the rest of the code has been cleaned up and simplified (fewer instructions to execute, less source code to compile, etc.).

  • A Coverity "potential dereferencing of NULL pointer" warning was reported. This release fixes the warning.
31-Oct-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.417):

  • Another piece of dead / unused code was reported in the OTL header file. The code is removed from this release.
26-Oct-2017, (New in OTL4.0.416):

  • Another piece of dead / unused code was reported in the OTL header file. The code is removed from this release.
24-Oct-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.415):

  • A piece of dead / unused code was reported in the OTL header file. The code is removed from this release.
22-Oct-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.414):
21-Oct-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.413):

  • This release of OTL introduces the following new mode for handling SELECT statements / stored procedures (SPs) returning implicit result sets for ODBC / DB2-CLI: otl_direct_exec_select. This special mode is introduced for more efficient processing of "one time" literal (no input variables) SELECT statements / implicit result set SPs via a call to SQLExecDirect() instead of SQLPrepare()+SQLExecute().
20-Oct-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.412 (updated(3))):

  • PostgreSQL 10 has been recently released. All OTL unit tests run fine against PostgreSQL 10.

16-Oct-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.412 (updated(2))):

  • MS SQL Server 2017 has been recently released. All OTL unit tests run fine against SQL Server 2017.

14-Oct-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.412 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2017 Update 4 has been released recently. This version of OTL builds clean and all OTL unit tests run fine when built with VC++2017 Update 4.

07-Oct-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.412):

  • A problem was reported in OTL/ODBC when Unicode Character Set was enabled in Visual C++ Studio project's properties. Under that property, the recently introduced function otl_connect::rlogon(const char*userid, const char* passwd, const char* dnsname) is stubbed out / has no implementation. An appropriate implementation was added to this release of OTL.
05-Oct-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.111):

  • The following compilation error was reported in OTL/ODBC and Visual C++ 2017:

         argument of "unsigned char*" is incompatible with parameter of type "SQLWCHAR*  

    The error is fixed in this release of OTL.
30-Sep-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.410):

  • This release of OTL introduces a new otl_connect::rlogon() function for ODBC/DB2-CLI. The function allows single-byte character (a.k.a. ASCII / European character sets) string userid, password, and DSN to be passed as separate parameters, which allows passwords to have special characters.
09-Sep-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.409):

  • CLANG 5.0.0 has been released recently. This version of OTL fixes all CLANG 5.0.0 related compilation and static code analysis warnings. OTL unit test suite compiles clean with CLANG 5.0.0, and the test suite runs fine when built with CLANG 5.0.0.
19-Aug-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.408):

  • A cleaner implementation for otl_stream operators <</>> () for std::tuple was suggested. This version of OTL implements the operators as suggested.
16-Aug-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.407):

  • GNU C++ 7.2 and Visual Studio 2017 Update 3 have been released recently. This version of OTL fixes all GNU C++ 7.2 as well as VC++2017 Update 3 related compilation issues.
10-Aug-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.406):

  • This release of OTL introduces a new implementation for otl_read_row / otl_write_row template variadic functions. The new implementation uses C++17 fold expressions and if constexpr statements for compilers that support such features. C++ fold expressions are said to be more readable and more efficient compile time wise compared to C++11 based implementations of template variadic functions.

  • Code refactoring: a couple of class enums have been added in this release for better compliance with C++11/14/17 standards for compilers that support such standards.
29-Jul-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.405):

  • Code refactoring: this release of OTL annotates a few of its functions, including the functions from the OTL public API, with C++11/14/17 standard attributes like [[noreturn]], [[nodiscard]], etc. for versions of C++ compilers that support such attributes (conditionally compiled). Some C++ OTL based custom code may cause compiler warnings, which may have to be fixed depending on the compiler warning level (typically at "warnings as errors" in good software shops), but the intent here is that the code should be cleaner, stricter, etc. Enjoy your hot C++ summer!
18-Jul-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.404 (updated (4)):

  • OTL code examples for SQLite / ODBC have been modified to reflect the current state of development. In short, downgrading ODBCVER to ODBC 2.5 is no longer required.

16-Jul-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.404 (updated (3)):

  • CLANG 4.0.1 has been released recently. This version of OTL compiles clean with CLANG 4.0.1 and the OTL unit test suite runs fine when built with CLANG 4.0.1.

04-Jul-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.404 (updated (2)):

  • GNU C++  6.4 has been released recently. This version of OTL compiles clean with g++ 6.4, and the OTL unit test suite runs fine when built with g++ 6.4.

17-Jun-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.404 (updated)):

  • Visual C++ Studio 2017 update 2 (version 15.2) has been released recently. This release of OTL compiles clean with it, and the OTL unit test suite runs fine when built with it.

10-Jun-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.404):

  • This release introduces the following new function: otl_stream::skip_to_next_var(). The function skips to the next output variable / select output column in a fetch sequence.
18-May-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.403):

  • A few emails were received with the suggestion to change the fix for the VC++ 2017 static code analyzer warning introduced in OTL 4.0.402. The problem is that the fix introduced redundant checks for nullptr. The warning was a false positive. This release disables the warning locally for the code that causes the false positive and then re-enables the warning. Apologies for the inconvenience.

14-May-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.402):

  • A VC++2017 static code analyzer warning was reported. The warning is fixed in this release.
04-May-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.401):

  • GNU C++ 7.1 has been released recently. This release of OTL fixes GNU C++ 7.1 specific compiler warnings. OTL compiles clean with GNU C++ 7.1, and OTL unit test suite runs fine when the unit tests are built with GNU C++ 7.1.

  • This release of OTL introduces the following new #defines:
01-Apr-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.400):

  • A problem was reported that when OTL was used with Oracle 11.2.0.4, otl_subscriber class didn't take into account OCI flag OCI_ATTR_CHDES_ROW_OPFLAGS correctly. For more detail on the flag, see this link. The problem is fixed in this release. Many thanks to the reporter of the problem who also provided the fix.
31-Mar-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.399 (updated)):

  • The F.A.Q. has been updated with a new question / answer about how OTL should be used with SQL Server clustered columnstore based tables.

30-Mar-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.399):

  • This release introduces support for std::array<char16_t,...> (a.k.a. UTF-16 character arrays) via the following new #define OTL_STREAM_WITH_STD_UNICODE_CHAR_ARRAY_ON, and new OTL stream operators <</>>. The advantage of using std::array<char16_t,...> compared with plain char16_t[...] is that the container does not decay to a plain pointer to char16_t, so OTL can check the size of the target container and throw an otl_exception. The following code examples have been modified to demo the new feature: 174, 265, 271.
25-Mar-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.398):

  • This release introduces support for std::array<char,...> via the following new #define OTL_STREAM_WITH_STD_CHAR_ARRAY_ON, and new OTL stream operators <</>>. The advantage of using such containers compared with plain char[...] is that the container does not decay to pointer to char, so OTL can check the size of the target container, and throw an otl_exception. These code examples have been modified to demo the new feature: 770, 771, 772.
19-Mar-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.397):

  • Oracle 12c Release 2 (12.2) was released 1-Mar-2017. This version of OTL introduces the following new #define that should be used with Oracle 12.2: OTL_ORA12C_R2. OTL unit test suite for Oracle builds clean against OCI 12.2 and the unit test suite runs fine against Oracle 12.2.
15-Mar-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.396 (updated)):

  • CLANG 4.0 has just been released. The OTL unit test suite compiles clean with CLANG 4.0 when this version of OTL is used, and OTL unit tests run fine when built with CLANG 4.0.

11-Mar-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.396):
04-Mar-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.395):

  • A problem was reported that when OTL was used with Oracle, outputting a blob into an otl_long_string in some cases could give a wrong character in the beginning/end of the output like 0x1, 0x8, 0x16. The problem is fixed in this release.
12-Feb-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.394):

  • This release introduces support for std::tuple<>, under #define OTL_CPP_14_ON or higher, and when the following new #define is enabled: OTL_STREAM_WITH_STD_TUPLE_ON. For more detail, see also new code examples 770 (MS SQL), 771 (DB2), and 772 (Oracle). OTL code examples for other database types can be easily made from the code examples above.

    OTL stream operators <</>> that take std::tuple<> as parameters, can iterate over any user defined std::tuples.
18-Jan-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.393):
14-Jan-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.392):

  • A runtime error was reported when OTL was used with MS ACCESS ODBC: Optional feature is not implemented. The problem was that when a <float> bind variable was declared in the SQL statement, OTL mapped SQL_C_FLOAT to SQL_FLOAT, which was not supported by the MS ACCESS ODBC driver. This release introduces the following new #define that maps SQL_C_FLOAT to SQL_REAL, which is supported by the MS ACCESS ODBC driver: OTL_MAPS_SQL_C_FLOAT_TO_SQL_REAL.

  • A problem was reported that when OTL was used with Firebird ODBC driver, and when #define OTL_ODBC_CHAR_SQLWCHAR_CONVERSION_FUNCS was enabled, otl_exception sometimes returned garbagy characters in the msg field. The problem is fixed in this release.

  • This release introduces support for std::basic_string_view / std::experimental::basic_string_view (C++17) when the template classes are used with UTF-16 characters via the following new #define OTL_STD_UNICODE_STRING_VIEW_CLASS. OTL has added these new operators <<():

    • otl_stream::operator<<(const OTL_STD_UNICODE_STRING_VIEW_CLASS&)
    • otl_refcur_stream::operator<<(const OTL_STD_UNICODE_STRING_VIEW_CLASS&) (Oracle only)

For more detail, see also the changed OTL code examples:

OTL code examples for other database types can be easily modified similarly to the code examples above.
08-Jan-2017, (New in OTL 4.0.391):

For more detail, see also the changed OTL code examples:

OTL code examples for other database types can be easily modified similarly to the code examples above.
31-Dec-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.390 (updated):

  • A documentation issue was reported that it was not clear how OTL handled database NULLs in the context of std::optional<T> variables. Additional text has been added to the manual for clarification. Happy New Year to everyone!

22-Dec-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.390):

  • Code cleanup: a few inconsistencies in the OTL header file were reported. This release fixes the inconsistencies. Besides, G++ 6.3 and CLANG 3.9.1 have recently been released. This release of OTL compiles clean with both G++ 6.3 and CLANG 3.9.1, and the OTL unit test suite runs fine when built with G++ 6.3 and CLANG 3.9.1.
20-Dec-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.389):

  • This release introduces the ability of OTL to use external overrides for the following #defines: OTL_STRCAT_S, OTL_STRCPY_S, OTL_STRNCPY_S, OTL_SPRINTF_S. The rationale here is that if there is a need to use more secure than compiler provided C string functions, this mechanism can be used.
17-Dec-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.388):

  • This release moves the overloads for operators >> / << for std::optional<T> from the global namespace into the corresponding implementations of the otl_stream class in order to eliminate the problem that was reported in the first place.
16-Dec-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.387):

  • Compilation  errors were reported when OTL was used together with BOOST and ACE. OTL and BOOST have some conflicting  overloads for template operators << / >>. So, if the OTL header file is included before BOOST, then the OTL operator << / >> overloads are used, which is incorrect. If BOOST is included before OTL, then the BOOST overloads are used, which is incorrect either. In order to resolve the conflict, this release of OTL introduces the following new #define that is required for enabling OTL support for std::optional<>: #define OTL_STREAM_WITH_STD_OPTIONAL. Also, see code examples see 98, 99, 100, and  204.
11-Dec-2016, (New in OTL4.0.386):

  • A few compilation warnings were reported for CLANG 3.8.1. The warnings are fixed in this release.
28-Nov-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.385):

  • Ilya Batalov from Russia contributed native support for Oracle Spatial Geometry (Oracle 11.2 and higher) under the following new #define: OTL_ORA_SDO_GEOMETRY. For more detail, see code example 769.
28-Oct-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.384):

  • This release introduces support for std::experimental::optional<T> / std::optional<T>. OTL works with std::optional<T> the same way it does with otl_value<T>: otl_compact_value<T,null>. The support for std::optional<T> is enabled under auto detection of what C++ standard is used by the C++ compiler, or explicitly enabled by #define OTL_CPP_14_ON or #define OTL_CPP_17_ON.

    For more detail, see code examples 98, 99,  100, and 204. If you can't find a code example for your database type, it's easy to migrate the std::optional<T> based code from examples for other database types.
23-Oct-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.383):

  • This release introduces the following new template container, similar to otl_value<T>: otl_compact_value<T,null>. The new container can be used instead of otl_value<T> when T has a magic value that can represent NULL in a given context. For example, T is int and -1 can be used as NULL. otl_compact_value<int,-1> is as compact as int itself, and otl_compact_value is more convenient / more readable to use than plain int.

    For more detail on otl_compact_value<T,null>, see code examples 98, 99, and 100. If you can't find a code example for your database type, it's easy to migrate the otl_compact_value based code from examples for other database types.
15-Oct-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.382):

  • Inconsistent use of C++ standard constants was reported around the automatic detection for /std / -std compiler command line switches. The problem is that the constants which the C++ standard #define __cplusplus is compared to should be long (have letter L at the end), for example: __cplusplus==201103L. The problem is fixed in this release.

  • This release introduces the following new #define to control OTL tracing: OTL_TRACE_LEVEL_NOCHECK_ON_LOGON.
13-Oct-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.381):

  • This release introduces automatic detection for /std:c++14,  /std:c++latest for VC++ 2015 Update 3 and higher, -std switches for g++ and clang. So, there is no need to use explicit #define OTL_CPP_11_ON,  #define OTL_CPP_14_ON, and #define OTL_CPP_17_ON, when more or less recent g++, clang, or VC++ is used. Such explicit #defines can still be used. This auto-detection is backward compatible with pre-C++11 compilers.
13-Sep-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.380 (updated)):

  • CLANG 3.9.0 has been recently released. This version of OTL compiles clean with CLANG 3.9.0, and OTL unit test suite runs fine when built with CLANG 3.9.0.

05-Sep-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.380):

  • The same suggestion as in the previous release of OTL (4.0.379) has been implemented in OTL 4.0.380 for Oracle BLOBs/CLOBs: OCIArrayDescriptorAlloc() / OCIArrayDescriptorFree() functions are called for Oracle 11G Release 1 and higher for better performance.
30-Aug-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.379):

  • A problem was reported that when #define OTL_ORA_TIMESTAMP is used, performance is not the best it can be. A suggestion was made to use OCIArrayDescriptorAlloc() / OCIArrayDescriptorFree() in order to improve performance. For pre-Oracle 11G (Release 1, old!), OTL still uses OCIDescriptorAlloc() / OCIDescriptorFree() calls. This release implements the suggestion.
27-Aug-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.378):

  • This release introduces the following new parameter for function otl_read_from_stream(): max_number_of_rows_to_read. This parameter allows the caller of the function to put a cap of how many rows get read from the OTL stream.
23-Aug-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.377 (updated)):

GNU C++ 6.2 has been released recently. This version of OTL compiles clean with g++ 6.2 , and OTL test suite runs fine when built with g++ 6.2.

21-Aug-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.377):

  • This release introduces the following new #define: OTL_CLANG_THREAD_SAFETY_ON. It enables OTL to use the thread safety feature of CLANG. This new #define is recommended for use with CLANG 3.7 and higher.
11-Aug-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.376 (updated (2)):

  • The manual has been updated to reflect the latest capabilities of CLANG 3.8 and higher. OTL unit test suite compiles clean when CLANG and -std=c++1z are used, and the unit test suite runs fine when built with CLANG and -std=c++1z.

04-Aug-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.376 (updated)):

  • CLANG 3.8.1 has been released recently. This version of OTL compiles clean with CLAN 3.8.1 and OTL unit test suite runs fine when built with CLANG 3.8.1.

26-Jul-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.376):

  • A compilation problem was reported that the following functions were missing:

        const unsigned char& otl_long_string::operator[](int ndx) const;   
      const unsigned short& otl_long_unicode_string::operator[](int ndx) const;

         The problem is fixed in this release.
24-Jul-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.375):

  •  Inconsistent behavior was reported in the otl_stream's default auto-commit (it's supposed to be on by default) when OTL Stream Pooling was used, and the otl_stream's auto-commit was turned off. A newly opened stream that reused an SQL statement from the stream pool had the stream's auto-commit set to off, even though the stream was opened with the default setting for the auto-commit. The problem is fixed in this release of OTL.
2-Jul-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.374):

  • A problem was reported when #define OTL_ODBC was used, and when a connect string, that was passed into otl_connect::rlogon(), contained national characters, OTL converted such characters into wide characters incorrectly. This release of OTL introduces the following #define to fix the problem: OTL_ODBC_CHAR_SQLWCHAR_CONVERSION_FUNCS.
30-Jun-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.373):

  • Visual Studio 2015 Update 3 has been released recently. This release of OTL fixes a compile issue when /std:c++latest is used. OTL unit test suite runs fine when built with Visual Studio 2015 Update 3 under both /std:c++14 and /std:c++latest.
15-Jun-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.372 (updated)):

  • DB2 LUW 11.1 has been released today. This release of OTL compiles clean with the DB2 11.1 header files, and OTL unit test suite runs fine against DB2 11.1.

11-Jun-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.372):

  • In preparation for the upcoming release of Visual Studio 2015 Update 3, OTL header file needed to be rearranged a little bit. Visual Studio 2015 Update 3 is going to introduce a new /std command line option similar to GNU C++'s -std. From this release of OTL and on, in order to cleanly compile OTL with Visual Studio 2015 (no updates) and higher, the following #defines should be used: #define OTL_CPP_11_ON, or #define OTL_CPP_14_ON (this #define is more preferable).
02-Jun-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.371):

  • SQL Server 2016 has been released recently. OTL unit test suite for SQL Server runs fine against SQL Server 2016 when the unit test suite is built with OTL 4.0.371. #define OTL_ODBC_MSSQL_2008 should be used with SQL Server 2016.

01-May-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.371):

  • GNU C++ 6.1 has been released recently. G++ 6.1 supports -std=c++17 , which enables C++17 features. This release of OTL introduces the following new #define: OTL_CPP_17_ON. This #define enables OTL to use C++17 features (like std::uncaught_exceptions()) to take advantage of the latest available C++ compiler technology, and for better C++ standard compliance.

10-Apr-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.370):

  • Compilation warnings were reported when OTL was compiled with CLANG and command line options -Wsign-conversion and -Wunused-private-field. This release of OTL fixes the warnings.
05-Apr-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.369):

  • Visual Studio 2015 Update 2 came out a few days ago. There was a problem compiling OTL with Visual Studio 2015 Update 2 when the following target platform was used: Clang 3.7 with Microsoft CodeGen (v140_clang_3_7), LLVM-vs2014. This release of OTL fixes the problem. OTL compiles clean with Visual Studio 2015 Update 2, and the OTL unit test suite runs fine when built with Visual Studio 2015 Update 2.
13-Mar-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.368 (updated)):

  • Clang 3.8 has been released recently. This version of OTL compiles clean with the released clang 3.8, and the OTL unit test suite runs fine when built with the released clang 3.8.

03-Mar-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.368):

  • A problem was reported that OTL didn't compile when the following #defines were enabled and when Visual C++ 2015 Update 1 was used:

    #define OTL_ODBC_MSSQL_2008
    #define OTL_UNICODE
    #define OTL_UNICODE_CHAR_TYPE wchar_t
    #define OTL_UNICODE_STRING_TYPE std::wstring
    #define OTL_EXCEPTION_IS_DERIVED_FROM_STD_EXCEPTION

    This combination of #defines was not supported, but there was no clear compile time error message about it. This release of OTL adds a new #error statement in order to clarify what needs to be done: #error OTL_UNICODE_EXCEPTION_AND_RLOGON needs to be defined when OTL_EXCEPTION_IS_DERIVED_FROM_STD_EXCEPTION is used with Unicode.

    In other words, #define OTL_UNICODE_EXCEPTION_AND_RLOGON needs to be added to the list when, say, Unicode is enabled at the project / solution level in Visual C++ Studio:

    #define OTL_UNICODE_EXCEPTION_AND_RLOGON
    #define OTL_ODBC_MSSQL_2008
    #define OTL_UNICODE
    #define OTL_UNICODE_CHAR_TYPE wchar_t
    #define OTL_UNICODE_STRING_TYPE std::wstring
    #define OTL_EXCEPTION_IS_DERIVED_FROM_STD_EXCEPTION
12-Feb-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.367):

  • A problem was reported that when OTL is used with Oracle/OCI and when a connect string contains an empty TNS name (for example "user/password@"), subsequent calls to otl_connect::rlogon() generate memory leaks. More precisely, the OCIServerAttach() function generates memory leaks. This release of OTL introduces the following new exception to prevent such memory leaks: empty TNS in connect string (code 32045).

  • A problem was reported that otl_stream::describe_out_vars() doesn't populate the param_type parameter in otl_var_desc correctly: it should be 1 for output columns of a SELECT statement, but param_type is set to  0, which indicates input parameters. The problem is fixed in this release.
31-Jan-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.366):

  • A problem was reported that OTL used SQL_C_TIMESTAMP with ODBC 3.x drivers instead of SQL_C_TYPE_TIMESTAMP, which caused a problem for some databases (see  Datetime Data Type Changes for more detail). The problem is fixed in this release.
09-Jan-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.365, (updated 2)):

  • An OTL code example was added to demonstrate PostgreSQL 9.5 new UPSERT feature and relatively new functions otl_read_row()/otl_write_row(): example 768. The new feature is similar to the standard SQL MERGE command, only it's claimed to be more powerful. The functions take advantage of new[-ish] C++11/14 features, and the functions add end-of-row checks to make OTL programming more strict / safe.

07-Jan-2016, (New in OTL 4.0.365, (updated 1)):

  • PostgreSQL 9.5 was just released. The PostgreSQL / OTL test suite runs fine against PostgreSQL 9.5.
23-Dec-2015, (New in OTL 3.0.365):

  • A few g++ 4.9.3 compilation warnings were reported. This release of OTL fixes the warnings.
12-Dec-2015, (New in OTL 4.0.364 (updated 4)):

  • OTL unit test suite builds clean  with this release of OTL and runs fine, when built with Visual C++ 2012 Update 5, and Visual C++ 2013 Update 5. Both of Visual C++ updates  were released in the summer of this year (2015).

10-Dec-2015, (New in OTL 4.0.364 (updated 3)):

  • GNU C++ 5.3 as well as Visual C++ 2015 Update 1 were released recently. This release of OTL compiles clean with both C++ compilers, and all unit tests, when built with G++ 5.3 and VC++ 2015 Update 1, run fine.

26-Nov-2015, (New in OTL 4.0.364 (updated 2)):

  • OTL code examples for Sybase have been successfully tested against this release of OTL and Sybase 16.0 SP2.

  • OTL code examples for MySQL have been successfully tested against this release of OTL and MySQL 5.7 / MariaDB 10.1 using MySQL ODBC connector 5.3.4.

22-Nov-2015, (New in OTL 4.0.364 (updated)):

  • Old code examples for Interbase 6 have been resurrected and successfully tested with Firebird 2.5 against this release of OTL using Firebird's stock ODBC driver.

10-Oct-2015, (New in OTL 4.0.364):

  • A problem was reported that OTL didn't print (to ostream, or when OTL Tracing was enabled) the fractional part of the second of otl_datetime correctly. For example, the fractional precision is set to 6 and the actual value is 1234. OTL prints the value as .1234. A more correct version of the value should be .001234, meaning it should have 2 leading 0s. The problem is fixed in this release. The old format (without leading zeros) for backward compatibility can be enabled via #define OTL_LEGACY_TRACE_DATETIME_FORMAT_ON.
24-Sep-2015, (New in OTL 4.0.363):
19-Sep-2015, (New in OTL 4.0.362):

  • A problem was reported in otl_subscriber class (Oracle only). The problem is that an optional parameter (IP address) doesn't work unless it's explicitly specified at least for Oracle 11.2.0.4 (see the subscribe function for more detail). The reporter of the bug filed a TAR with Oracle.

12-Sep-2015, (New in OTL 4.0.362):

  • A few redundant pointer comparisons were pointed out in OTL 4.0.361. The redundancies have been fixed in this release.
05-Sep-2015, (New in OTL 4.0.361 (updated)):

  • This release of OTL compiles clean with clang 3.8 (latest), and unit test suite runs fine when built with clang 3.8.

03-Sep-2015, (New in OTL 4.0.361):

  • This release introduces support for C++11 for-range-loops:

    • otl_stream based loops can be rewritten like this:

      while(!my_stream.eof()){...} ==> for(auto& it : my_stream){...}

    • otl_stream_read_iterator based loops can be rewritten like this:

      while(my_stream_iter.next_row()){...} ==> for(auto& it: my_stream_iter){...}

For more detail, see the following code examples:
23-Jul-2015, (New in OTL 4.0.360):

  • Visual C++ Studio 2015 as well as GNU C++ 5.2 have been released in the last few days. This release of OTL fixes a number of compilation issues: all OTL unit tests compile clean and run fine when built with VC++ 2015 and G++ 5.2.
15-Jun-2015, (New in OTL 4.0.359):

  • A few CLANG 3.6 (and higher) warnings generated by -Wreserved-id-macro were reported. The warnings are fixed in this release.
14-Jun-2014, (New in OTL 4.0.358):

  • This release introduces the following new #define: OTL_CPP_14_ON. This #define enables OTL to use C++14 features to take advantage of the latest of the available C++ compiler technology.
08-Jun-2015, (New in OTL 4.0.357):

  • A few compiler warnings were reported when OTL was compiled with CLANG 3.6. The compiler warnings have been fixed in this release.

  • A question was also asked whether OTL supported -std=c++14 for CLANG. This release compiles clean with CLANG (at least CLANG 3.6 and higher) under -std=c++14. The OTL unit test suite runs fine when built with CLANG under -std=c++14.

04-Jun-2015, (New in OTL 4.0.356 (updated)):

  • A question was asked whether OTL compiles with the latest GNU C++ (5.1) when -std=c++14 is used. This release builds clean and the OTL unit test suite runs correctly when built with GNU C++ 5.1 with -std=c++14

30-May-2015, (New in OTL 4.0.356):

  • A few cppcheck ("Exception thrown in function declared not to throw exceptions") warnings were reported against OTL 4.0.355. The warnings are fixed in this release.
25-May-2015, (New in OTL 4.0.355):

  • GNU C++ 4.8 compiler warnings (XXX shadows member of this) were reported in otl_connect_pool class when -std=c++11 was used: the warnings are fixed in this release.

  • This release adds the following new function to otl_connect_pool: get_mutex().
23-May-2015, (New in OTL 4.0.354):
14-May-2015, (New in OTL 4.0.353):

  • Code cleanup: no change to any public interfaces.
06-May-2015, (New in OTL 4.0.352):

  • A problem was reported with #define OTL_VERSION_NUMBER, which sets the OTL version number in hexadecimal. The problem is that the hexadecimal number was ahead of the official decimal number of the OTL version. The problem is fixed in this release. Because the hexadecimal number can't go down without breaking some code that checks the version number, the official decimal version number had to be bumped up to 4.0.352.

  • A problem was reported that otl_stream::clean() didn't reset otl_stream's internal pointers correctly, and  otl_stream::check_end_of_row() / endr threw the END-OF-ROW check failed  otl_exception after the call to otl_stream::clean(). The problem is fixed in this release.
02-May-2015, (New in OTL4.335):
23-Apr-2015, (New in OTL 4.0.334 (updated)):

  • GNU C++ 5.1 has just been released. This release of OTL builds clean with G++ 5.1, and the OTL unit test suite runs fine when built with G++ 5.1.

02-Mar-2015, (New in OTL 4.0.334):

  • A problem was reported that OTL didn't compile with DB2 Client 8.0 header files (old client from early 2000s) under Visual C++ 2010. The problem is fixed in this release.
05-Feb-2015, (New in OTL 4.0.333):

  • A compilation error was reported ('void' function returning a value) when otlv4.h was compiled with Visual C++ 6.0. The error is fixed in this release.
29-Jan-2015, (New in OTL 4.0.332):

  • This release discontinues support for Oracle Call Interface 7 (OCI7, #define OTL_ORA7. Oracle discontinued it over a decade ago, but the diehards were using it until 2012-2013): any OCI7 related code has been removed from the OTL header file (otlv4.h).
24-Jan-2015, (New in OTL 4.0.331 (updated)):

  • PostgreSQL 9.4 was released a month ago, and a question was asked whether OTL suppored it or not. The OTL unit test suite runs clean (no errors) against PostgreSQL 9.4.

04-Jan-2015, (New in OTL 4.0.331):

  • Copyright notice has been updated for 2015.

  • The OTL header file (otlv4.h) has been reformatted with "clang-format" using the LLVM formatting style:

             clang-format -style=llvm -i otlv4.h
25-Dec-2014, (New in OTL 4.0.330):

  • A a typo was reported in a #define, which results in a failed compile time check. The typo is fixed in this release.

  • Code cleanup: integration of all available sanitizers for CLANG and G++ (-fsanitize=thread, -fsanitize=address, -fsanitize=undefined, -fsanitize=leak, -fsanitize=memory (CLANG only as of G++ 4.9.2, presumably it will be available for G++ at a later date)) into the OTL build / automated unit test process is complete.
13-Dec-2014 (New in OTL 4.0.329):

  • Code cleanup: 

    • (round 3, a.k.a. OTL tries to play nice with CLANG): this release started to use CLANG's --analyze option to build the OTL unit test suite for Linux. This release fixes a few CLANG Analyzer warnings.

    • This release started to use -fsanitize=address for GNU C++ 4.8 (and higher), and for CLANG 3.4 (and higher) to build the OTL unit test suite for Linux.
07-Dec-2014 (New in OTL 4.0.328):

  • Code cleanup: a few explicit type casts have been added to fix CLANG++'s -Wno-sign-conversion warnings.
29-Nov-2014 (New in OTL 4.0.327):

  • Code cleanup:

    •  a couple of internal enums have been converted to scoped class enums for C++11 compilers (Visual C++, GNU C++, CLANG++) in order to reduce the global namespace pollution;

    • a few explicit type casts have been added to fix CLANG++ warnings;

    • a couple of copy constructors have been declared "= default" (when it's safe to make a bit-wise copy) for C++11 compilers.
22-Nov-2014 (New in OTL 4.0.326 (updated)):

  • The following new code examples have been added to show how OTL works with JSON (a.k.a. new XML): example 760 (Oracle 12.1.0.2 and higher), example 761 (Oracle 12.1.0.2 and higher), example 762 (PostgreSQL 9.3 and higher).
16-Nov-2014, (New in OTL 4.0.326):

  • A few GNU C++ 4.8.2 and GNU C++ 4.9.2 warnings were reported for Linux. The warnings are fixed in this release.

  • Q&A for Linux and Microsoft SQL Server is updated to say that SNAC 11 is available.
01-Nov-2014, (New in OTL 4.0.325):

  • Compilation errors were reported when #define OTL_CPP_11_ON and #define OTL_FUNC_THROW_SPEC_ON are used together. They are not compatible, so this release of OTL adds a check if both #defines are enabled, the OTL header file issues an error (#error).

  • GNU C++ 4.9.2 was  just released. The OTL unit test suite compiles clean with this release, and all tests run fine.
29-Oct-2014, (New in OTL 4.0.324):

  • A compilation error was reported when #define OTL_FUNC_THROW_SPEC_ON is enabled. The problem is fixed in this release.
21-Oct-2014, (New in OTL 4.0.323):

  • A problem was reported that when #define OTL_ODBC_MSSQL_2008 , #define OTL_UNICODE, and #define OTL_NUMERIC_TYPE_1 are used together, otl_stream::operator>>(OTL_NUMERIC_TYPE_1&) doesn't return correct data. The problem is fixed in this release.

  • This release introduces #defines OTL_NUMERIC_TYPE_1_NO_NUMERIC_STATIC_CASTS, OTL_NUMERIC_TYPE_2_NO_NUMERIC_STATIC_CASTS, and OTL_NUMERIC_TYPE_3_NO_NUMERIC_STATIC_CASTS to be used with #defines OTL_NUMERIC_TYPE_X, when the "large numeric types" can't be type cast (static_cast<>) to regular numeric types like int, double, short int, etc.

  • A problem was reported that when #define OTL_DB2_CLI is used against DB2 v10.5.400.191, SELECT statements returning 0 rows generate an error under some circumstances. The problem is fixed in this release.

    More precisely, SQLExecute() may return SQL_NO_DATA sometimes, which makes it slightly incompatible with any previous version of DB2.
11-Oct-2014, (New in OTL 4.0.322):

  • A problem was reported that when #define OTL_ODBC_MSSQL_2008, and #define OTL_ROLLS_BACK_BEFORE_LOGOFF are used together, otl_connect::~otl_connect() doesn't roll back the last transaction before disconnecting from the database. The problem is fixed in this release.

  • A problem was reported that when #define OTL_DESTRUCTORS_DO_NOT_THROW is used, otl_::~otl_connect shouldn't be marked as noexcept(false) for C++11 compilers. The problem is fixed is this release.

  • A few 64-bit GNU C++ compiler (4.8 and higher) warnings were reported when command line option -Wconversion is used. The warnings are fixed in this release.
04-Oct-2014, (New in OTL4.0.321):

  • A problem was reported that OTL otl_stream::create_stored_proc_call() function doesn't return any results when used with Oracle 12.1.0.2 and when the PL/SQL procedure name that is used as the input argument for the function call has no parameters. The problem is due to some incompatibility in the system data dictionary between Oracle 12.1.0.1 and Oracle 12.1.0.2. OTL was successfully tested against Oracle 12.1.0.1 before. Oracle 12.1.0.2 came out a few months after the first release of Oracle 12c back in June of 2014.
30-Sep-2014, (New in OTL 4.0.320 (update 1)):

  • The following new code example was added to show how to enable UTF-8 encoding for MySQL: example 759.
25-Sep-2014, (New in OTL 4.0.320):

  • A problem was reported that when #define OTL_CPP_11_ON is used with g++ 4.7.0 (or higher) and -std=c++11, the program may terminate. The problem is due to some incompatibility between C++03 and C++11 standards. C++11 compilers add noexcept(true) to all destructors by default. This release fixes the problem by adding noexcept(false) to some destructors.
09-Aug-2014, (New in OTL 4.0.319):

  • A memory leak was reported when OTL was used with #define OTL_ORA11G_R2 or #define OTL_ORA12C. The leak turned out to be an OCI resource leak that was introduced in one of the OTL 4.0.31x versions due to ambiguity in the OCI manual. The memory leak is fixed in this release.
05-Aug-2014, (New in OTL 4.0.318 (update 2)):

  • GNU C++ 4.9.1 was released in July 17, 2014. This release of OTL compiles clean with GNU C++ 4.9.1, and the OTL unit test suite runs fine.

04-Aug-2014, (New in OTL4.0.318 (update 1)):

  • Visual C++ Studio 2013 Update 3 has been released today. This release of OTL compiles clean with the Visual C++ 2013 Update 3, and the OTL unit test suite runs fine.

27-Jun-2014, (New in OTL 4.0.318):

  • Code cleanup: a few new typedefs and C++11 enums (for C++ compilers that support such features) were added  and a few constants were changed for better readability and performance.
16-May-2014, (New in OTL 4.0.317 (updated (3)):


24-Apr-2014, (New in OTL 4.0.317 (updated (2)):

  • GNU C++ 4.9 has just been released. The OTL unit test suite compiles clean with GNU C++ 4.9, and all of the unit tests run fine after that.

01-Apr-2014, (New in OTL 4.0.317 (updated)):

  • MS SQL Server 2014 just got released. All of the OTL unit tests for MS SQL run fine when built with the current version of OTL. #define OTL_ODBC_MSSQL_2008 is good for using it against SQL Server 2014.

17-Fed-2014, (New in OTL 4.0.317):

  • A problem was reported that std::uncaught_exception() is not thread safe (an exception thrown in a different thread may make the function return true) in the following versions of xlC compilers (AIX):

    IBM XL C/C++ for AIX, V12.1 (5765-J02, 5725-C72)































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































Version: 12.01.0000.0007































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































IBM XL C/C++ for AIX, V11.1 (5724-X13)































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































Version: 11.01.0000.0010

    This release introduces the following new #define in order to disable the default use of the std::uncaught_exception() function: #define OTL_UNCAUGHT_EXCEPTION_OFF.

  • This release works around an Oracle bug (BUG 11716746 on Oracle Metalink), which causes the OCI layer to make a database round-trip on an OCILobRead() call even when "LOB prefetching" was enabled via otl_connect::set_lob_prefetch_size().
9-Feb-2014, (New in OTL 4.0.316):

  • This release introduces the following new function: otl_connect::set_lob_prefetch_size() for Oracle 11G Release 2, and Oracle 12c. The function can be used to enable OCI default prefetching of CLOBs/BLOBs in order to reduce the total number of database round-trips for small LOB values.
18-Jan-2014, (New in OTL 4.0.315):

  • The problem that OTL 4.0.313 was supposed to fix was reported not to be fully fixed. The problem is fixed in this release.
12-Jan-2014, (New in OTL 4.0.314):

  • A problem was reported that OTL can't be used with the OCI Client Caching. This release changed calls to OCIStmtPrepare() / OCIHandleFree() to OCIStmtPrepare2() / OCIStmtRelease() for Oracle 11.2 and Oracle 12c (#define OTL_ORA11G_R2, #define OTL_ORA12C).
04-Jan-2014, (New in OTL 4.0.313):

  • A problem was reported that when a bind variable declaration is not complete, yet it does not generate an error message / OTL exception, for example:

          "...:v<char[100]", or even "...:v<char[100"

    It only happens for the very last bind variable declaration is an SQL statement. The problem is fixed is this release, and also this release is introducing the following new OTL defined exception: Code=32044, Bind variable declaration is missing a terminator: > or */.
29-Dec-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.312):

  • A problem was reported in functions otl::get_number_of_errors_in_batch() and otl_stream::get_error(), which were introduced in OTL 4.0.308, that the functions don't handle OCI errors correctly. The problem is fixed in this release.
22-Dec-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.311):
18-Dec-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.310):

  • CODE CLEANUP: Calls to std::forward() have been added to the variadic version the otl_write_row() function in order to preserve properties of input parameters (rvalue-ness, lvalue-ness, const-ness, etc.).
16-Dec-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.309):

  • CODE CLEANUP:

    • Internal OCI (Oracle) resources are allocated more optimally when Oracle batch error mode (introduced in OTL 4.0.308) is used.

    • Deprecated OCI function OCIStmtFetch() was replaced with OCIStmtFetch2() when OCI 9 through OCI 12 is used.
07-Dec-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.308):
23-Oct-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.307):

  • A compilation error was reported when OTL_ORA8I is used. The error is fixed in this release.
19-Oct-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.306):

  • GNU C++ 4.8.2 and Visual C++ 2013 have just been released. Visual C++ 2013 supports C++11's "=delete" qualifier as well as variadic templates. This release uses those two features automatically for Visual C++ 2013, especially for otl_read_row() / otl_write_row(). The OTL unit test suite compiles clean with GNU C++ 4.8.2 and Visual C++ 2013, and it produces the correct results after having been compiled with GNU C++ 4.8.2 and Visual C++ 2013.
05-Oct-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.305):

  • This release introduces a limited set (from 1 to 15 parameters) of nonvariadic template functions otl_read_row() / otl_write_row() that can be used with pre-C++11 compilers. Also, the following code examples have been modified to show the use of the new nonvariadic template functions:

    • Oracle, OCI7 (example 1, 97)
    •  Oracle, OCI8 and higher (example 10, 98)
    •  MS SQL (example 67, 99)
    • DB2 (example 89, 100)
26-Sep-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.304):

  • A GNU C++ 3.4.6 compilation error was reported when the following OTL #defines are defined:

    #define OTL_ORA9I
    #define OTL_UNICODE
    #define OTL_UNICODE_CHAR_TYPE wchar_t
    #define OTL_UNICODE_STRING_TYPE std::wstring
    #define OTL_DEFAULT_STRING_NULL_TO_VAL (L"")

    The error is this:

    /otlv4.h:30772: error: reinterpret_cast from type `const wchar_t*' to type `wchar_t*' casts away constness



    This release fixes the error.

  • A memory access violation error / program crash was reported when OTL was used with MS SQL Server 2008 (#define OTL_ODBC_MSSQL_2008), and when otl_stream::clean() was being called in a catch block after a SELECT statement that referenced a nonexistent table:

    try{
       s.open(...);
       ...
    }catch(otl_exception&...){
       ...
       s.clean(1);
       ...
    }

    This release fixes the error.

  • The following existing code examples have been modified in order to show how to use OTL variadic template functions otl_read_row() / otl_write_row() that were introduced in OTL 4.0.303:

    • Oracle, OCI7 (example 1, 97)
    •  Oracle, OCI8 and higher (example 10, 98)
    •  MS SQL (example 67, 99)
    • DB2 (example 89, 100)
22-Sep-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.303):

  • This release introduces the following new C++11 variadic template functions: otl_read_row() / otl_write_row(). The functions accept lists of variable numbers of parameters that form whole logical rows, and the functions check the "end-of-row" condition at the end of each parameter list, which completely eliminates the "row-tearing" problem. For now, the functions are enabled under g++ 4.7 and higher. As soon as CLANG and / or Visual C++ 2013 implement the necessary feature, the functions will be automatically enabled for those C++ compilers.
10-Sep-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.302):

  • This release introduces the following new #define: OTL_PARANOID_EOF. When enabled, this #define makes OTL throw otl_exception (code 32043) when a call to otl_stream::operator>>() is being made beyond the "end of file". This technique allows subtle bugs to be caught quicker, but it effectively disables the following coding idiom: while(s>>f1>>f2)..., if(s>>f1)..., etc.
07-Sep-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.301):
04-Sep-2013, (new in OTL 4.0.300):
01-Aug-2013, (new in OTL 4.0.299):
22-Jul-2013, (new in OTL 4.0.298 (updated)):

  • DB2 LUW 10.5 was released last month (June 2013). This release of OTL builds clean with the DB2 10.5 client header files and libraries, and the OTL unit test suite runs fine against DB2 10.5.

21-Jul-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.298):

  • Oracle 12c has been released. This release of OTL introduces basic support for Oracle 12c with the following new #define: OTL_ORA12C. All available OTL code examples for prior releases of Oracle (7-11) should work, assuming that #define OTL_ORA12C is used, and each code example is compiled and linked with Oracle 12c client header files and libraries.

20-Jun-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.297):
01-Jun-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.296 (updated (2)):

  • GNU C++ 4.8.1 was just released. This release of OTL builds clean with g++ 4.8.1, and the OTL unit test suite runs fine.

30-May-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.296 (updated)):

  • A problem was reported that it was not possible to connect to MS SQL Server when UID contains an '@' sign, for example:

       db.rlogon("UID=user@servername;DSN=mydsn;PWD=mypassword");

    The following text in the manual was extended with a connect string example to show how use the '@' sign literally in connect strings.

27-May-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.296):

  • A problem was reported with OTL_UNICODE_ID (an internal #define in the OTL header file) being defined more than once when OTL_STREAM_POOLING_ON and OTL_UNICODE_STRING_TYPE are used together under some circumstances. The C++ compiler issues a warning, and when warnings are set to be treated like errors, it makes the compilation fail. The problem was introduced in OTL 4.0.295. The problem is fixed in this release. Also, the following new code examples have been added to demonstrate how to use OTL_STREAM_POOLING_ON and OTL_UNICODE_STRING_TYPE together: examples 751 (Oracle), 752 (MS SQL), 753 (DB2). These new code examples should be easy enough to modify to work with the rest of the database types that OTL supports.

  • A couple of compilation problems was reported with 'OTL_STRING_CONTAINER: OTL_STRING_CONTAINER' : undeclared identifier. The problems are fixed in this release.
24-May-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.295):
20-May-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.294):

  • CODE CLEANUP: a few minor code tweaks were suggested for OTL 4.0.293. This release implements the suggestions.
18-May-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.293):

  • More Visual C++ 2012 Code Analysis warnings were reported. A few Visual C++ 2010 Code Analysis warnings were reported as well. This release fixes all of the reported warnings.
15-May-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.292):

  • A few Visual C++ 2012 Code Analysis warnings were reported for OTL 4.0.291. This release fixes the warnings.
05-May-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.291):

  • A problem was reported that when otl_lob_stream is used with a stored procedure that returns an implicit result set to enter an input parameter, OTL throws the "CLOB/BLOB stream is not open for reading" exception. It wasn't quite clear what was going on. This release introduces the following new exception: 32042, otl_lob_stream can't be used as an input parameter with a SELECT statement or a stored procedure that returns an implicit result set.

    OTL (for DB2 CLI, ODBC) has a limitation on how otl_lob_streams are used with SELECTs / SPs returning implicit result sets: otl_lob_streams can only be used for output parameters / output SELECT columns.
28-Apr-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.290):

  • CODE CLEANUP: "get_rpc" functions have been marked as "non-throwing" (noexcept for C++11 (when #define OTL_CPP_11_ON is enabled, throw() (when #define OTL_NO_THROW_IS_EMPTY_THROW is enabled)) for the C++ compiler's  optimizer to be able to generate more efficient code.
26-Apr-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.289):
23-Apr-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.288):

  • This release implements a new optimized SELECT statement for otl_stream::create_stored_proc_call() for Oracle 11.x to access the Oracle data dictionary.  A patch was submitted by a developer from Malta. Many thanks!

  • This release introduces the following new function to the otl_lob_stream class for a more flexible interface: setInitialReadOffset(). The function is implemented for Oracle only. Also, code examples 56 and 57 have been modified to show how to use the new function.
20-Apr-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.287):

  • CODE CLEANUP: in order to address a legitimate question, some conditional compilation (#ifs) statements were simplified for better readability.
07-Apr-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.286):

  • A problem was reported that when OTL was used against Oracle, a SELECT statement was used in the LOB stream mode (otl_lob_stream), and CLOB / BLOB columns were in the middle of a SELECT output column list, the otl_lob_stream didn't return the correct LOB length or the content. Normally, CLOB / BLOB columns should be put at the end of the SELECT output column list to work correctly in the LOB stream mode.

    In order to address the need of being able to put CLOBs / BLOBs in the middle of the list and being able to use the LOB stream mode (Oracle only), this release introduces the following new #define: OTL_SELECT_STREAM_ALTERNATE_FETCH.
04-Apr-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.285):

  • CODE CLEANUP to address a couple of legitimate questions:

    • several NULL (zero) pointers were replaced with nullptr for C++ compilers that support C++11 for cleaner, more readable code.

    • some conditional compilation (#ifdefs) statements were simplified for better readability.
23-Mar-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.284):

  • GNU C++ 4.8.0 was released yesterday. This release of OTL builds clean with G++ 4.8.0, and the OTL unit test suite runs fine.
21-Mar-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.283 (updated (3)):


16-Mar-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.283 (updated (2)):

03-Mar-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.283 (updated)):

  • The PostgreSQL specific part of the OTL unit test suite runs fine against the latest PostgreSQL 9.2.3 and this release.

11-Feb-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.283):

  • A problem was reported that when the otl_stream buffer size is invalid (<=0), OTL doesn't raise any exceptions. The problem is fixed in this release, and the following new OTL defined exception is introduced: Invalid stream buffer size (<=0).
10-Feb-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.282 (updated)):

  • MySQL 5.6 came out recently. OTL unit tests for MySQL run fine against MySQL 5.6 and MySQL ODBC connector 5.2.

14-Jan-2013, (New in OTL 4.0.282):
27-Dec-2012, (New in OTL 4.0.281):

  • CODE CLEANUP: OTL had #define OTL_NO_TMPL_MEMBER_FUNC_SUPPORT enabled for GNU C++ by default. Somebody pointed out that GNU C++ has supported template member functions for quite some time. This release does not disable template member function by default for GNU C++ (version 4.1 and higher). This opens more optimization and semantic check opportunities for the GNU C++ compiler.
19-Dec-2012, (New in OTL 4.0.280):

  • BUG FIX: A bug was reported that the OTL header file didn't compile with ACE 6.x when #define OTL_ACE and #define OTL_ORA11G_R2 are enabled together. The problem is fixed in this release.

  • CODE CLEANUP: Visual C++ 2012 introduced #define _NOEXCEPT throw(). Many VC++ 2012 STL functions are marked as _NOEXCEPT, IntelliSense recognizes it, and a throwing function that is marked as _NOEXCEPT will not compile. There are also optimization opportunities for the compiler when functions are marked as "non-throwing".

    This release of OTL adds _NOEXCEPT to its non-throwing functions when compiled with VC++ 2012.
15-Dec-2012, (New in OTL 4.0.279 (updated)):

  • Visual Studio 2012 Update 1 just came out. This release compiles clean with VC++ 2012 Update 1, and the unit test suite runs fine.

13-Dec-2012, (New in OTL 4.0.279):

  • A problem was reported that otl_subscriber (Oracle 10g and higher) didn't handle the following cases in a switch statement in otl_subscriber::notification_callback() correctly:
            case (OCI_OPCODE_INSERT+OCI_OPCODE_UPDATE+OCI_OPCODE_ALLROWS):
            case (OCI_OPCODE_INSERT+OCI_OPCODE_DELETE+OCI_OPCODE_ALLROWS):
            case (OCI_OPCODE_UPDATE+OCI_OPCODE_DELETE+OCI_OPCODE_ALLROWS):
            case (OCI_OPCODE_INSERT+OCI_OPCODE_UPDATE+
                  OCI_OPCODE_DELETE+OCI_OPCODE_ALLROWS):
            case (OCI_OPCODE_UNKNOWN+OCI_OPCODE_ALLROWS):
              OnTableChange(table_name,all_rows);































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































          continue;
    The problem is fixed in this release.
08-Dec-2012, (New in OTL.0.278):
04-Dec-2012, (New in OTL 4.0.277):

  • A potential problem was reported in isalnum() calls. According to the C standard, isalnum() expects an input value in the range of "unsigned char", or EOF (-1). Otherwise, the behavior is undefined. This could be problematic for C++ compilers that have "char" as "signed char" by default, if SQL statements contain bind variable names with, say, extended ASCII ([128..255] range). The problem is fixed in this release.
27-Nov-2012, (New in OTL 4.0.276):

  • The following problem was reported: when klocwork compiles OTL, it marks occurrences of class data member / variable "override" as a problematic use of keyword "override". According to C++11, "override" has special meaning in certain contexts, but it's not a C++ keyword. It'll take a while for the klocwork folks to fix the problem in their C++ parser, so as a goodwill gesture, problematic occurrences of "override" are fixed in this release.

  • OTL unit test suite runs fine against MS SQL Server 2012 SP1.
25-Oct-2012, (New in OTL 4.0.275):

  • A code inconsistency (missing "breaks") was reported in a few switch statements. The switch statements didn't produce incorrect results. This release fixes the problem for the sake of code consistency and readability.
20-Oct-2012, (New in OTL 4.0.274):

  • A problem was reported that OTL has a few compilation errors / warnings when it's used with wxWidgets version 2.9.4 or higher. The problem is that wxWidgets' string class wxString's "c_str()" function for Unicode / wide character strings is called wc_str(). OTL makes calls to c_str(), which is the problem. This release introduces the following new #define to address the problem: OTL_C_STR_FOR_UNICODE_STRING_TYPE.
12-Oct-2012, (New in OTL 4.0.273):

  • An "uninitialized variable" compilation warning was reported for GNU C++ 4.1. The warning is fixed in this release.

  • A dead URL was reported in the OTL Introduction page. The link is fixed in this release.

  • GNU C++ 4.7.2 came out 9/20/2012. This release compiles clean with G++ 4.7.2.
 
19-Sep-2012, (New in OTL 4.0.272 (updated (2)):

  • PostgreSQL 9.2 got released recently. PostgreSQL specific unit tests from the OTL unit test suite have been successfully tested against PostgreSQL 9.2 and this release of OTL.

18-Sep-2012, (New in OTL 4.0.272 (updated):

  • This release compiles clean with Visual C++ Studio 2012 (it came out last week), and the OTL unit test suite runs fine.

11-Sep-2012, (New in OTL 4.0.272):

  • A problem was reported that when an OTL based program has a long uptime (months on end), and the program opens and closes OTL streams a lot, dynamic heap fragmentation goes up. In order to address the problem, this release introduces the following new #define: OTL_INITIAL_VAR_LIST_SIZE.

  • This release compiles clean with CLANG++ 3.1, and the OTL unit test suite runs fine.
02-Sep-2012, (New in OTL 4.0.271):

  • An "unused variable" compilation warning was reported when OTL compiles with CLANG. The problem is fixed in this release.
11-Aug-2012, (New in OTL 4.0.270):

  • A problem was reported when #define OTL_UNICODE is used with Oracle and LONG table columns. The problem is that sometimes LONG string values contain garbage characters at the end, presumably from longer LONG values fetched by the otl_stream before. The problem is fixed in this release.
04-Aug-2012, (New in OTL 4.0.269):

  • A bug was reported that the OTL header file didn't compile with ACE 6.0 when #define OTL_ACE was enabled. The problem is fixed in this release.
20-Jul-2012, (New in OTL 4.0.268):

  • This release compiles clean with GNU C++ 4.7.1, which was released over a month ago.
09-Jun-2012, (New in OTL 4.0.267):

  • This release introduces two new bind variable data types: bfloat, bdouble. These new bind variable data types should only be used with Oracle PL/SQL tables of BINARY_FLOAT and BINARY_DOUBLE (Oracle 10 and higher) in order to work around quirks of the PL/SQL engine.
06-Jun-2012, (New in OTL 4.0.266):

  • The following two problems were reported:

    • When #define OTL_ODBC_MSSQL_2008 or #define OTL_DB2_CLI is enabled, otl_lob_stream::len() returns lengths from previously fetched LOB values if the current LOB value is NULL. The expectation is that the function should return 0.

    • When #define OTL_UNICODE is enabled, and otl_lob_stream::operator>>(otl_long_string&) or <<(const otl_long_string&) is called for reading / writing a binary LOB (not a character LOB), OTL throws otl_exception 32038.

The problems are fixed in this release.
12-May-2012, (New in OTL 4.0.265 (updated)):

  • This release has been successfully tested with DB2 LUW 10.1. #define OTL_DB2_CLI should be used with DB2 10.1.

  • This release has been successfully tested with SQL Server 2012. #define OTL_ODBC_MSSQL_2008 should be used with SQL Server 2012, SQL Server 2008 Release 2, and SQL Server 2008.

24-Apr-2012, New (in OTL 4.0.265):

  • A problem was reported that the following line(s) in the OTL header file cause a core dump in HPUX:

         static OTL_STRING_CONTAINER delimiter(";");

    The problem is that for static-in-function non-POD (plain old data) variables, the HPUX C++ registers corresponding destructor calls as atexit() handlers, which get called when main() returns. This is problematic when static variables reside in a shared object, which may be unloaded before main() returns. Ideally, destructors of such static(-in-function) variables should get called before the shared object is unloaded. Most C++ compilers don't have such a problem. HPUX C++ does, and some old versions of AIX C++ (xlC) have similar behavior. The problem is fixed in this release.

  • The following compilation problem was reported when #define OTL_ODBC_TIMESTEN_WIN is used in compilation with VC++ in 64-bit mode (#define _WIN64) in Windows:

    error C2664: "SQLParamOptions" : cannot convert parameter 3 from "SQLUINTEGER *" into "SQLULEN *"

    The problem is fixed in this release.
19-Apr-2012, New (in 4.0.264 (updated)):

  • The F.A.Q. has been updated: a new Q&A has been added to answer the question of whether OTL can handle stored procedures that return multiple implicit result sets or not (when used with ODBC, MS SNAC, or DB2 CLI).

14-Apr-2012, New (in OTL 4.0.264):

  • A problem was reported that when otl_lob_stream::operator>>(std::string&) is reading a BLOB (binary large object) value containing 0 bytes ('\0') in it, the value gets truncated to the very first 0 byte. It was not a bug, it was a feature, meaning that std::strings were meant to be used with character strings (not binary strings), and the otl_lob_stream::operator>>() used std::string::operator+=(), which relied on the null terminator byte in the string. This release and higher will use std::string::append(const char*, size_t len) instead, which does the concatenation based on the "len" parameter. otl_lob_stream::operator(ACE_TString&) has the same behavior (when #define OTL_ACE is used) as otl_lob_stream::operator>>(std::string&) (when #define OTL_STL is used).
10-Apr-2012, New (in OTL 4.0.263):

  • More of C++11 features used in this release: copy / move constructors, copy / move assignment operators, etc., that were made private before, are declared " = delete" (as deleted) for GNU C++ 4.7.0 and higher for better compiler diagnostic and clarity of the interface.
6-Apr-2012, New (in OTL 4.0.262):

  • A problem in  otl_exception class reported: when Visual C++  8 or higher is used, and when the text of an SQL statement (stm_text data member) is longer than the sizeof(stm_text), Visual C++ runtime throws an error. The problem is fixed in this release.

  • This release introduces the use of many C++11 features available in g++ 4.7.0 or higher under the following new #define: OTL_CPP_11_ON. The OTL source code was modified to take advantage of the C++11 new techniques and features, which results in cleaner code. Support of C++11 features is not even in different C++ compilers, so it had to be conditionally compiled.

    When g++ 4.7.0 or higher is used, and when -std=c++11 is enabled on the compilation command line, I'd also recommend to add the following warnings: -Wc++0x-compat -Wzero-as-null-pointer-constant. The compiler will tell you what's not kosher in your source code. OTL build enables the warnings when -std=c++11 is enabled on the command line.
3-Apr-2012, New (in OTL 4.0.261):

  • This release introduces the following new OTL defined exception in order to avoid confusion about stored procedures returning result sets:

    • code 32040, this type of otl_stream can only have input variables.
30-Mar-2012, New (in OTL 4.0.260):

  • A memory leak was reported when OTL stream pooling (#define OTL_STREAM_POOLING_ON) is used. The symptom is reproducible when otl_stream::open() is called, and otl_stream::~otl_stream() right after that. The reporter of the problem says that the memory leak is present in more circumstances. The problem is fixed in this release.

  • More detail has been added to the descriptions of otl_connect::commit() and otl_connect::rollback() functions in order to clarify things.
24-Mar-2012, New (in OTL 4.0.259):

  • GNU C++ 4.7.0 was released a few days ago. This release of OTL compiles clean with G++ 4.7.0, and all unit tests work correctly.

  • A problem was reported that when OTL_UNICODE is enabled and a variable of the otl_long_string class is used instead of otl_long_unicode_string by mistake, it is hard to figure out what went wrong. This release closes the loophole by introducing the following two new OTL defined exceptions:

    • code 32038, otl_long_unicode_string should be used with strings when OTL_UNICODE is enabled, and otl_long_string should be use with strings when OTL_UNICODE is not enabled

    • code 32039, otl_long_string should be used with nonstrings when OTL_UNICODE is enabled
21-Mar-2012, New (in OTL 4.0.258):

  • GNU C++ 4.6.3 was released a few weeks ago. This release of OTL compiles clean with G++ 4.6.3, and all unit tests work correctly.

  • A problem was reported that when #define OTL_ODBC / #define OTL_ODBC_MULTI_MODE is used with the Oracle ODBC driver, and #define OTL_BIGINT / #define OTL_STR_TO_BIGINT / #define OTL_BIGINT_TO_STR, "bigint" values beyond 2GB do not get written / read correctly. The problem is fixed in this release.


29-Feb-2012, New (in OTL 4.0.257):

  • This release introduces the following new functions when OTL stream pooling is enabled: otl_connect::stream_pool_enable(), otl_connect::stream_pool_disable(), otl_connect::get_stream_pool_enabled_flag().
12-Feb-2012, New (in OTL 4.0.256):

  • A problem was reported that when OTL stream pooling is used with two identical SELECT statements, which have the same otl_stream buffer sizes, but have different sets of SELECT output column overrides (made via calls to otl_stream::set_column_type()), the stream pool doesn't distinguish between the two SELECT statements. The key in the stream pool was the SQL statement text + stream buffer size. This release extends the stream pool key to take the SELECT output column overrides into account.
11-Feb-2012, New (in OTL 4.0.255):

  • This release introduces basic optional native support for unsigned 64-bit integers in the form of the following new bind variable type: ubigint. Also, see OTL code example 243 (DB2), 698 (Oracle 11.2).

    NOTICE: For database APIs that have no native support for unsigned 64-bit ints, OTL extended numeric types can be used, which were introduced in OTL 4.0.245.
21-Jan-2012, New (in OTL 4.0.254):

  • The following compilation problem was reported in a 64-bit Linux, unixodbc 2.2.14, SQLite, and GNU C++ 4.6.1:

    error: cannot convert ‘SQLUINTEGER* {aka unsigned int*}’ to ‘SQLULEN* {aka long unsigned int*}’ for argument ‘3’ to ‘SQLRETURN SQLParamOptions(SQLHSTMT, SQLULEN, SQLULEN*)’

    The problem has been fixed in this release.
11-Jan-2012, New (in OTL 4.0.253):

  • The following compilation problem was reported in OTL/DB2-CLI (#define OTL_DB2_CLI), when it's compiled in a 64-bit Windows in the 64-bit mode: internal OTL_SQLLEN type (and others) were not of the proper size for a 64 bit Windows system. The problem is fixed in this release.
22-Dec-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.252):

  • A bug was reported that when an std::string has a null terminator in the middle, and it gets written into a VARCHAR table column via char[XXX] bind variable, nothing gets written beyond the null terminator. It's not quite a bug, it's a feature as far as the cliche goes. OTL binds "NULL terminated strings" with its char[XXX] bind variables.

    For strings with null terminators in the middle, raw[XXX] binding should be used instead. In this release, otl_stream's string (std::, or ACE, or user defined) operator>>/<< have been expanded to work with raw[XXX]. See also code examples 747 (Oracle, OCI7), 748 (Oracle, OCI 8 or higher), 749 (DB2), 750 (MS SQL). It's easy to convert these new code examples to use with other database types.

    A new entry has been added to the F.A.Q. to cover the topic of std::strings and embedded NULL characters.
19-Dec-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.251 (updated)):

  • This release compiles clean with GNU C++ 4.3.x and higher when the following command warning option is enabled:

           -Wc++0x-compat

    It's a C++0X / C++11 compatibility warning for GNU C++.

10-Dec-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.251):

  • A bug was reported in otl_connect::session_begin() (OTL for Oracle), when it's used with Oracle 11.2 and empty user id / empty password (a.k.a. external authentication, equivalent to "connect /" in SQLPlus), it fails to authenticate the credentials. The bug is fixed in this release.
24-Nov-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.250):

  • The following typos (bugs) were reported in copy and move constructors in the otl_column_desc class:

      otl_column_desc(const otl_column_desc& desc):
        ...
        dbsize(desc.dbtype),
        ...

      otl_column_desc(otl_column_desc&& desc):
       ...
        dbsize(desc.dbtype),
       ...

    which means that if otl_column_desc is used in containers (std:: or any other) that implement copy and / or move semantic, the dbsize data member will be copied / moved incorrectly.

    The bugs are fixed in this release. The impact of these typos seems to be pretty small, because any of the OTL unit tests or the use of otl_column_desc in actual OTL based C++ code haven't uncovered the typos until now. Typically, otl_column_desc is not used in any containers.
16-Nov-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.249):

  • A problem was reported in OTL/ODBC when it's used with the SQLite 3 ODBC driver in the SQLDescribeCol() function call when #define OTL_UNICODE is enabled. The problem is that the column name buffer size (4th parameter) is specified in bytes instead of Unicode characters. The problem is fixed in this release.
29-Oct-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.248 (updated)):

  • GNU C++ 4.6.2 was released on 10/26/2011. OTL 4.0.248 compiles clean with GNU C++ 4.6.2.

  • Two new code examples have been added:

    • example 745, which demonstrates how to use the UTF-8 client encoding with OTL and PostgreSQL. The PostgreSQL ANSI ODBC driver supports UTF-8 "out of the box".

    • example 746, which demonstrates how to use #define: OTL_ORA_CUSTOM_MAP_NUMBER_ON_SELECT, introduced in OTL 4.0.247.

13-Oct-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.248):

  • This release introduces the following new function: otl_stream::get_error_stream(). This function returns true if the stream is in the "error state" and requires "cleaning". See also code examples 65, 66, 67, 166.
11-Oct-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.247):

  • This release introduces the following new #define: OTL_ORA_CUSTOM_MAP_NUMBER_ON_SELECT. This #define can be used to override the OTL default numeric data type mapping on SELECT statements for Oracle.
08-Oct-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.246):

  • A problem was reported that otl_stream::describe_next_out_var() returns an incorrect result after otl_stream::skip_to_end_of_row() was called. The problem has been fixed in this release.
02-Oct-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.245):

  • OTL introduces the following new feature: extended numeric data types. Normally, that would be used for numeric data types that are not supported by the underlying database APIs, for example unsigned long long, long double, etc. It's done in a form of sets of #defines that specify the details of the new numeric data types. Also, see example 741, 742, 743, 744.
18-Sep-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.244 (updated)):

  • PostgreSQL 9.1 was just released, and I've already been getting questions on whether OTL supports it or not. All PosgtreSQL based unit tests + publicly available code examples run cleanly against PostgreSQL 9.1.

10-Sep-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.244):

  • A problem was reported when an SQL statement in an otl_stream has a bind variable declaration with a white space in it, the SQL statement silently fails at runtime. Ideally, an OTL defined exception should be thrown, instead of the stream returning incorrect results. Generally speaking, OTL doesn't allow white spaces in bind variable declarations. This release fixes the problem, and introduces the following new OTL defined exception, which gets thrown when a white space is found in a bind variable declaration: SQL Statement has a white space in bind variable declaration.


06-Sep-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.243 (updated)):

  • Fixed a few dead hyperlinks.

03-Sep-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.243):

  • A compilation problem (missing functions / operators in otl_stream class) were reported under the following set of OTL related #defines:

    #define OTL_BIND_VAR_STRICT_TYPE_CHECKING_ON
    #define OTL_ORA10G_R2
    #define OTL_ORA_TIMESTAMP
    #define OTL_STL
    #define OTL_EXCEPTION_IS_DERIVED_FROM_STD_EXCEPTION
    #define OTL_VALUE_TEMPLATE_ON
    #define OTL_ORA_DECLARE_COMMON_READ_STREAM_INTERFACE
    #define OTL_BIGINT ...
    #define OTL_STR_TO_BIGINT(str,n) ...
    #define OTL_BIGINT_TO_STR(n,str) ...

    The problem is fixed in this release.

  • Several potential problems (memory leaks, dereferencing NULL pointer, etc.) were reported based on results of the Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 "Team Edition for Software Developers" / "Code Analysis for C/C++". The problems have never been reported or found in tests as actual problems. This release fixes some of these potential problems, in order to make the Microsoft tool happy.
11-Aug-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.242):

  • Several potential problems (memory leaks, check for assignment to self in operator =, pointer may be NULL and could be dereferenced) were reported based on results of klocwork. The problems have never been reported or found in tests as actual problems. This release fixes the potential problems, in order to make klocwork happy.
31-Jul-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.241 (updated 2)):

  • The following new code example was contributed to the OTL examples: 740. It demonstrates how to use OTL with MySQL stored procedures that have output parameters. MySQL ODBC driver doesn't seem to support stored procedure output parameters. The code example demonstrates a technique that works around the limitation of the MySQL ODBC driver. If somebody knows how to work with stored procedure output parameters in a more regular way, any info would be highly appreciated.

30-Jul-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.241 (updated)):

  • This release compiles clean with GNU C++ 4.6.1, which was released about a month ago.

23-Jul-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.241):

  • A compilation problem was reported with Visual C++ 6.0, when #define OTL_ORAX (ORA7, ORA8, ...ORA11G_R2) and OTL_STLPORT are used. The problem is fixed in this release.

  • A compilation problem was reported in otl_input_iterator when it's compiled with GNU C++ 4.6.0 and when 64-bit ODBC Unix/Linux header files are used. The problem is fixed in this release.

  • This release introduces the following new #define: OTL_ORA_CUSTOM_FREE_TEMP_LOB. It addresses a problem of proper utilization when temporary Oracle LOBs get created via dbms_lob package, and get passed back into C++/OTL based code. When this #define is enabled it adds a call to OCILobFreeTemporary(), which deallocates the corresponding OCI resources correctly.

  • This release introduces the following new #define: OTL_STLPORT_USES_STD_ALIAS_NAMESPACE. It addresses a problem when OTL is used with STLPort (#define OTL_STLPORT is enabled), and when STLPort is configured to use __std_alias namespace.
19-Jun-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.240):
7-Jun-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.239):

  • The following compilation problem was reported under OTL/OCIx: error C2039: 'get_prefetched_row_count' : is not a member of 'otl_stream'. The problem is fixed in this release.

  • otl_stream::inc_next_ov() under OTL/OCIx was reported to be public yet undocumented. The function (and one  more similar function) was made protected.
1-Jun-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.238):

  • The following bug was reported in otl_stream::get_dirty_buf_len(): the function sometimes returns -2 instead of 0 when used with SELECT statements under OTL/OCIx. The bug is fixed in this release. Also, a few code examples have been added (examples 736, 737, 738, 739) for Oracle, DB2, and MS SQL Server (a.k.a. major database types). The code examples can be easily modified for OTL supported minor database types.

  • A compilation problem was reported when OTL was used with C++/CLI (Managed C++) and VC++ 2008. The problem was that nullptr was #defined as 0 when it's a legitimate keyword in C++/CLI. The problem is fixed in this release.
25-May-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.237):

  • The following bug was reported in otl_stream::get_dirty_buf_len(): the function doesn't return 1 (one) when rows, say, get inserted into a table. A typical actual sequence of returned values goes like this: 0,2,3... The bug is fixed in this release.


04-May-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.236):

  • Visual C++ 10 supports C++11 rvalue references and move semantics. This release adds (conditionally compilable for VC++ 10) public move constructors and move assignment operators to OTL classes (otl_column_desc, otl_long_string / otl_long_unicode_string) that already have public copy constructors / copy assignment operators (a.k.a. copyable /  assignable classes), and which also have pointers to big chunks of memory  allocated as separate memory blocks on the heap. Now the same classes are  movable, which makes them more efficient with STL containers.


30-Apr-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.235):

  • Visual C++ 10 supports C++11 rvalue references and move semantics. This release adds (conditionally compilable for VC++ 10) private move constructors and move assignment operators to OTL classes that already have private copy constructors and copy assignment operators, in order to keep the classes from being used in STL containers. The reason why such classes got private copy constructors and copy assignment operators in the first place was that they allocated unsharable database APIs resources.


20-Apr-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.234):

  • The following Open VMS C++ compiler warning was  reported  for a number of lines:

               %CXX-W-CASTQUALTYP, type qualifier is meaningless on cast type.

    The warning is fixed in this release.
19-Apr-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.233):
03-Apr-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.232):

  • GNU C++ 4.6.0 came out on March 25. This release fixes the following g++ 4.6.0 compilation warning: Line 23402, variable byte_lob_len is set but not used.
25-Mar-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.231):

  • The following compilation warnings were reported when OTL compiles with GNU C++ 4.5.1:
       
    warning: tmp.tagTIMESTAMP_STRUCT::year may be used uninitialized in this function
    note:tmp.tagTIMESTAMP_STRUCT::year was declared here
    warning: tmp.tagTIMESTAMP_STRUCT::month may be used uninitialized in this function
    note: tmp.tagTIMESTAMP_STRUCT::month was declared here
    warning: tmp.tagTIMESTAMP_STRUCT::day may be used uninitialized in this function
    note: tmp.tagTIMESTAMP_STRUCT::day was declared here
    warning:tmp.tagTIMESTAMP_STRUCT::hour may be used uninitialized in this function
    note: tmp.tagTIMESTAMP_STRUCT::hour was declared here
    warning: tmp.tagTIMESTAMP_STRUCT::minute may be used uninitialized in this function
    note: tmp.tagTIMESTAMP_STRUCT::minute was declared here
    warning: tmp.tagTIMESTAMP_STRUCT::second may be used uninitialized in this function
    note: tmp.tagTIMESTAMP_STRUCT::second was declared here
    warning: tmp.tagTIMESTAMP_STRUCT::fraction may be used uninitialized in this function
    note: tmp.tagTIMESTAMP_STRUCT::fraction was declared here


    The warnings are fixed in this release.
17-Mar-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.230):

  •  The following compilation problem was reported when OTL 4.0.229 is compiled with DB2 Client 8.x header files: "symbol SQL_ATTR_INFO_PROGRAMNAME is not defined". The problem is fixed in this release.
05-Mar-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.229):

  • A Visual C++ compilation error was reported when #define OTL_ODBC and #define OTL_ORA_UTF8 are defined together in the same compilation unit: error C2039: 'set_nls_flag' : is not a member of 'odbc::otl_var'. The error is fixed in this release.

  • The following new #define is introduced in this release in order to address a "memory access violation" error when OTL_ODBC and OTL_ORA_UTF8 enable two different instances of OTL in two separate compilation units in the same program: OTL_CONTAINER_CLASSES_HAVE_OPTIONAL_MEMBERS.

  • This release introduces a new function in the otl_connect class: set_prog_name(). The function allows an "application name" to be set that shows up in the output of DB2 command line processor's "list applications" command.
24-Feb-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.228 (updated))
  • Suryadi Wen, a database developer from Canada contributed some useful information on Oracle otl_subscriber for the following question in the OTL F.A.Q.: Why don't my Oracle otl_subscriber receive notifications on INSERT or UPDATE or DELETE statements?

5-Feb-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.228):
  • A memory leak was reported in OTL/OCIx when  the same otl_stream is used with an otl_long_string that has an  internal buffer and then with another otl_long_string that uses an external buffer. The memory leak is fixed in this release.
26-Jan-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.227):

  • A missing defined(__MVS__) clause in a  #if statement was reported in OTL 4.0.226, line 9797, which results in a compilation error when compiled with C++ on z/OS, IBM mainframes:

    #if (defined(_MSC_VER)&&(_MSC_VER==1200)) // VC 6++

    It should read as follows:

    #if (defined(_MSC_VER)&&(_MSC_VER==1200)||defined(__MVS__)) // VC 6++ or C++ in MVS

    The problem is fixed in this release.


25-Jan-2011, New (in OTL 4.0.226):

  • The following compilation problem was reported for VC++ 2010, when #defines OTL_ORA8I, OTL_STL, OTL_ANSI_CPP, and OTL_EXPLICIT_NAMESPACES are enabled at the same time:

    otlv4.h(32933): error C2143: syntax error : missing ';' before '<'
    otlv4.h(32933): error C2059: syntax error : '<'
    otlv4.h(32933): error C2065: 'T' : undeclared identifier
    otlv4.h(32933): error C2059: syntax error : 'public'
    otlv4.h(32933): error C2143: syntax error : missing ';' before '{'
    otlv4.h(32933): error C2447: '{' : missing function header (old-style formal list?)
    otlv4.h(32933): error C2039: 'output_iterator_tag' : is not a member of 'oracle::std'
    otlv4.h(32933): error C2146: syntax error : missing ';' before identifier 'iterator_category'
    otlv4.h(32933): error C2433: 'output_iterator_tag' : 'inline' not permitted on data declarations
    otlv4.h(32933): error C4430: missing type specifier - int assumed. Note: C++ does not support default-int
    otlv4.h(32933): error C2065: 'T' : undeclared identifier

    The problem is fixed in this release.
31-Dec-2010, New (in OTL 4.0.225 (updated (2)):
  • The following new example has been added in order to demonstrate how use OTL/OCIx with PL/SQL functions that return reference cursors: example 735.


25-Dec-2010, New (in OTL 4.0.225 (updated)):
  • The following new code examples have been added in order to demonstrate how to use OTL with numbers larger than signed 64-bit integer (>19 digits). The main assumption is that there is a "Big Number" class that can hold many enough decimal significant digits.

    • Oracle: example 729, 732 (Unicode)
    • DB2: example 730, 733 (Unicode)
    • MS SQL Server: example 731, 734 (Unicode)
       
18-Dec-2010, New (in OTL 4.0.225):
  • A compilation error was reported when OTL_STLPORT and OTL_ORA11G_R2 are defined together. The error was introduced in OTL 4.0.223 in the following fixes for Visual C++ 10. The compilation problem is fixed in this release.

  • A problem was reported in otl_lob_stream::len() when OTL is used with Oracle 9i. The function may return random values under some circumstances. The problem seems to be specific to an OCI9 call, which doesn't initialize an output variable. The problem is fixed in this release: the variable gets initialized before the call.

  • GNU C++ 4.5.2 was just released (16-Dec-2010). This release of OTL compiles clean with GNU C++ 4.5.2, and all unit tests run fine.

  • CODE CLEANUP. Incoming C++0x standard is going to introduce "nullptr" as a new keyword, which is already supported by Visual C++ 10. nullptr is a "new NULL pointer" that is of nullptr_t type, and it's convertible to any pointer type, but it's not interchangeable with 0. OTL #defines  nullptr as 0 for C++ compilers that don't support nullptr yet. All 0s (zeroes) in the OTL header file that are NULL pointers have been replaced with nullptr in this release.
03-Dec-2010, New (in OTL 4.0.224):
  • The following bug was reported when OTL/ODBC + Unicode (UTF-16) is used with MS ACCESS ODBC driver: Invalid precision value. The problem was in an SQLBindParameter() ODBC call in the columnSize parameter. The bug is fixed in the this release.
25-Nov-2010, New (in OTL 4.0.223 (updated)):
  • This release has been successfully tested with MySQL 5.5


24-Nov-2010. New (in OTL 4.0.223 (updated)):
  • The following new code examples to demonstrate how to the SQL MERGE statement with OTL have been added in this release:

    • Oracle 9i and higher, example 726
    • DB2, example 727
    • MS SQL Server, example 728

29-Oct-2010. New (in OTL 4.0.223):

  • A bug was reported  in the following conditional compilation that checks for Visual C++ 10: (_MSC_VER >= 1500). _MSC_VER for Visual C++ 10 is 1600. The bug is fixed in this release of OTL.

  • A bug was reported that when otl_output_iterator is derived from class _Outit under Visual C++ 10. _Outit actually belongs to namespace std, which OTL didn't declare correctly. The bug is fixed in this release of OTL.
23-Oct-2010. New (in OTL 4.0.222):

  • A bug was reported that when #define OTL_STL is used, the OTL header file uses "using namespace std", which pollutes the global namespace with names from namespace std. This release of OTL fixes the problem.

  • A compilation warning (C4996) was reported when OTL is compiled with Visual C++ 2010 in Debug mode and when  #define OTL_STL is enabled. The Debug mode of Visual C++ 2010 enables "#define _SECURE_SCL 1" by default, that is, it enables the so called "Checked STL Iterators", which are supposed to help debug STL iterators in custom C++ code. When _SECURE_SCL is set to 0, the compilation warning doesn't show up. The problem was that Visual C++ 2010 changed its implementation of STL. Now, it requires additional helper classes for Checked Iterators to function properly. OTL defines otl_input_iterator, and otl_output_iterator, which need those extra helper classes. The problem is fixed in this release. Checked Iterators now can be used with OTL otl_input_iterator, and otl_output_iterator.
22-Sep-2010. New (in OTL 4.0.221 (updated)):
  • This release of OTL has been successfully tested with PostgreSQL 9.0 and DB2 9.7.2.

13-Sep-2010. New (in OTL 4.0.221):
  • The following OTL defined compilation error has been relaxed / eliminated in this release: #error OTL_BIGINT is not supported when OTL_ORAXX and OTL_ODBC. This means that OTL supports "bigint" functionality when more than one instatiation of OTL is enabled in the same module. For example, when OTL_ODBC and OTL_ORA11G are defined, or OTL_DB2_CLI and OTL_ORA7 are defined. Special thanks to Konstantin Vasilyev from Russia for providing the necessary code changes.
29-Aug-2010. New (in OTL 4.0.220 updated (2)):
  • The following code example for TimesTen has been added to show how to use TT_BIGINT (64-bit integers)
    with OTL: example 725.

08-Aug-2010. New (in OTL 4.0.220 (updated)):
  • GNU C++ 4.5.1 was just released (end of July, 2010). This version of OTL compiles clean with GNU C++ 4.5.1, and all unit tests run fine.

06-Aug-2010. New (in OTL 4.0.220):
  • This release introduces support for the following ODBC/DB2-CLI data dictionary access function: SQLStatistics().
17-July-2010. New (in OTL 4.0.219):
  • A problem was reported that the otl_stream "auto-commit" flag is not available (after public data members of the otl_stream class were made private/protected at some point in time in OTL 4.0). This release introduces the following new getter function for getting the flag: otl_stream::get_auto_commit_flag().
27-June-2010. New (in OTL 4.0.218 (updated)):
  • I've been asked to add similar code examples (of the bulk interface and LOBs) for MS SQL Server, and DB2 at least. Here they go:
26-June-2010. New (in OTL 4.0.218):
  • This version of OTL introduces OCI7 (classic OCI) support for the bulk interface for small Oracle LONG RAWs (up to 64KB in size) via raw[XXX] bind variable data type, and the bulk interface for Oracle LONGs (the upper limit is not clear, theoretically it could be up to 2GB) via char[XXX] bind variable data type. For more detail, see examples 720, 721.
23-June-2010. New (in OTL 4.0.217):

  • This version of OTL introduces support for the bulk interface for small Oracle BLOBs (up to 64KB in size) via raw[XXX] bind variable data type, and the bulk interface for Oracle CLOBs (the upper limit is not clear, theoretically it could be up to 2GB) via char[XXX] bind variable data type. For more detail, see examples 718, 719.

    Versions of OTL below 4.0.217 support the bulk interface for small BLOBs (up to 32KB in size).
19-June-2010. New (in OTL 4.0.216):

  • Examples for PostgreSQL have been modified to show the use of the bulk interface (buffer sizes > 1 for INSERT / UPDATE / DELETE statements) for PostgreSQL 8.2 and higher. Versions of the PostgreSQL ODBC drivers higher than the version of the PostgreSQL server can be used together. For example, server version 8.1 works with PostgreSQL ODBC driver version 8.4 (and this version of the driver supports the bulk interface even with PostgreSQL server 8.1).

05-June-2010. New (in OTL 4.0.216):

  • An Oracle error was reported in otl_stream::create_stored_proc(), when it's used with Oracle 10.2. The bug is fixed in this release.
28-May-2010. New (in OTL 4.0.215):

  • A few C++ compilation warnings were reported when compiling with the latest cygwin (version 1.7.5, I believe). The warnings have been fixed in this release.
     

19-Apr-2010. New (in OTL 4.0.214, updated (2)):

  • GNU C++ 4.5.0 was released recently. OTL 2.0.214 compiles clean with g++ 4.5.0, and all OTL tests from the OTL test suite run correctly.

18-Apr-2010. New (in OTL 4.0.214, updated):

  • Visual C++ Studio 2010 (version 10) was released recently. OTL 2.0.14 compiles clean with VC++ 10, and all OTL tests from the OTL test suite run correctly.

02-Apr-2010. New (in OTL 4.0.214):

  • A bug was reported that when OTL/OCIx (x>=8) is used together with the LOB stream class, in case of an UPDATE statement that updates 0 rows, OTL throws the Oracle "Invalid LOB locator" exception. otl_lob_stream::close() function was modified to accommodate this special condition, and OTL code examples 56, and 57 were modified to show how to use it.

  • A bug similar to the first bug was found, when  OTL/OCIx (x>=8) is used without the LOB stream class, in case if an UPDATE statement updates 0 rows. The bug is fixed in this release.
19-Mar-2010. New (in OTL 4.0.213, updated):

  • What's New Page has been updated to reflect the traffic to the OTL Web site.

10-Mar-2010. New (in OTL 4.0.213):

  • This release introduces the following new #define in order to address compatibility issues with some frameworks, and transaction monitors: OTL_ROLLS_BACK_BEFORE_LOGOFF.


07-Mar-2010. New (in OTL 4.0.212):
28-Feb-2010. New (in OTL 4.0.211, updated):

  • GNU C++ 4.4.3 was released a month ago. This release of OTL compiles clean with g++ 4.4.3.

25-Feb-2010. New (in OTL 4.0.211):

  • A bug was reported that when otl_stream is instantiated with an otl_connect object that is not connected to the database, OTL/OCI10G throws an otl_exception with seemingly random error message and error code. This release introduces the following new #define that can be used as a workaround: #define OTL_STREAM_THROWS_NOT_CONNECTED_TO_DATABASE_EXCEPTION. The #define needs to be enabled before including the OTL header file. OTL will throw the not-connected-to-database exception in case if the otl_connect::connected flag is 0.


18-Feb-2010. New (in OTL 4.0.210, updated):

  • A problem was reported that T-SQL stored procedures that have INSERTs / UPDATEs / DELETEs don't work with OTL. An explanation has been added to the OTL F.A.Q.

20-Jan-2010: New (in 4.0.210):

  • A complition problem was reported when #define OTL_EXCEPTION_IS_DERIVED_FROM_STD_EXCEPTION is defined and g++ 4.1.2 is used. The problem is fixed in this release.
17-Jan-2010: New (in 4.0.209):

  • This release introduces a new Oracle SQL tool neutral syntax for bind variables. The rationale for the new feature is that OTL extended bind variable syntax should be transparent for the SQL tools. Also, see code example 717.


03-Jan-2010: New (in OTL 4.0.208):

  • OTL 4.0.181 introduced otl_stream::check_end_of_row() (and the otl_stream manipulator endr) in order to address the "row-tearing" problem in SELECT statements. This release of OTL extends the check_end_of_row() function (and the endr stream manipulator) to do the end-of-row checking for INSERT / UPDATE / DELETE statements as well as calls to stored procedures / anonymous PL/SQL blocks. the endr (end-of-row) stream manipulator is designed to be similar to C++ standard std::endl and std::ends stream manipulators at least by usage, for example:

          s>>f1>>f2>>endr;
       ...
       o<<f1<<f2<<endr;
          ...
    What it means is that when endr is called at the end of each operator >>/<< chain, it calls otl_stream::check_end_of_row(), which check the "end of row" condition. At least syntactically it looks very similar to the following:

         o<<f1<<f1<<endl;

    endr is recommended for use in long term projects, when over time the table layout may change, and the OTL based C++ code may get out of sync with the table layout. At least, the end-of-row check will catch that. See also the following new code examples:

    • Oracle (OCI7): example 710;
    • Oracle (OCI8 and higher): example 711;
    • DB2 CLI: example 712;
    • MS SQL Server: example 713;
    • Sybase: example 714;
    • MySQL: example 715;
    • PostgreSQL: example 716.

    For database types that are not in the list (above), the same code can be used with appropriate  database type specific #define's, and table columns.
27-Dec-2009: New (in OTL 4.0.207 updated (2) ):

  • The following PostgreSQL code samples have been added (by popular demand!) in order to show how to use OTL with PostgreSQL XML data type. See examples: 706, 707, 708, 709.

20-Dec-2009: New (in OTL 4.0.207 updated):

  • A few questions were asked whether OTL supported Unicode for MySQL / MyODBC or not. OTL/ODBC 4.0.207 has been successfully tested with MySQL / MyODBC 5.1 connector (which is the latest version at this point in time). A set on new OTL code examples has been added to demonstrate how OTL/ODBC works with MyODBC 5.1 connector and Unicode.


13-Dec-2009: New (in OTL 4.0.207):

  • A problem was reported that otl_stream::eof() doesn't return 1 after a call to otl_stream::clean() when the stream was instantiated with a SELECT statement. The problem is fixed in this release.
12-Dec-2009. New (in OTL 4.0.206):

  • A problem was reported that otl_stream::create_stored_proc_call() function doesn't recognize  PL/SQL global stored procedures with no parameters (Oracle). The bug is fixed in this release. Also, an example of a global stored procedure without any parameters was added to code example 153.
29-Nov-2009. New (in OTL 4.0.205 updated):

  • NEW GNU C++ COMPILER VERSION. G++ 4.4.2 was released back in mid-October. OTL 4.0.205 was verified to compile clean and tested with G++ 4.4.2.

26-Nov-2009: New (in OTL 4.0.205):

  • A problem was reported that in OTL/OCI10-11, otl_subscriber class doesn't report simultaneous UPDATE / INSERT / DELETE events that are happening to the same row. The problem is fixed in this release.

    Happy Thanksgiving to everybody in US!
22-Oct-2009. New (in OTL.4.204):

  • A problem was reported in OTL/OCI8-11 (under #define OTL_ORA8-11). The problem is that otl_connect leaks memory when used in a series of unsuccessful rlogon() calls (database connection requests are unsuccessful because, say, TNS name couldn't be resolved, or the database account credentials are invalid). The problem is fixed in this release.
1-Oct-2009. New (in OTL4.0.203):

  • DB2 UDB 9.7 was released this past summer. This release has been successfully compiled and tested with DB2 9.7. DB2 9.7 introduced new data type: timestamp(N), where N in [0..12]. OTL only supports precision up to 9 digits (nanoseconds). So, otl_datetime::frac_pecision can be set as high as 9. I'll implement DB2 9.7 timestamp's precision in [10..12] range at some point in the future when somebody requests the feature.

29-Sep-2009. New (in OTL4.0.203):
20-Sep-2009. New (in OTL4.0.202):

  • Oracle 11g Release 2 (11.2) was released recently. This release of OTL introduces support for Oracle 11.2 via #define OTL_ORA11G_R2. Also, OTL 4.0.202 supports signed 64-bit integers natively for both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms (via OCI 11.2's new feature for signed 64-bit ints) when OTL_ORA11G_R2 is defined. So, there is no need to use string-to-64-bit-int / 64-bit-int-to-string emulation (#define OTL_BIGINT_TO_STR, OTL_STR_TO_BIGINT) for Oracle 11.2. For more detail, see two new code examples for Oracle 11.2:

    • native support for signed 64-bit ints for Oracle 11.2
    • direct path data loading via optimizer hint /*+APPEND_VALUES*/ for Oracle 11.2

  • TimesTen 11.2 was released recently at the same time as Oracle 11.2 (Oracle Corporation actually acquired TimesTen back in 2005). OTL 4.0.202 was tested successfully with TimesTen 11.2
5-Sep-2009. New (in OTL 4.0.201):

  • I was asked to provide a few code examples for the new features introduced in OTL 4.0.200:

    • Oracle OCI7 (classic OCI), examples 690, 691
    • Oracle OCI8 and higher, examples 692, 693
    • MS SQL Server 2008 SNAC, examples 696, 697
    • For other supported database types, examples can be derived from example 690-697.

  • OTL Web Site Stats Report was added to the "Users' Comments / OTL Web Stats" page.

  • A problem was reported that operator<<(ostream&,const otl_value<otl_datetime>&) can't be overloaded because the OTL header file already defines such an operator. New #define OTL_DISABLE_OPERATOR_GT_GT_FOR_OTL_VALUE_OTL_DATETIME is introduced in this release to disable operator<<(ostream&,const otl_value<otl_datetime>&) in the OTL header file.

  • Documentation bug was reported in otl_subscriber::OnException() function. OTL 4.0.200 code cleanup changed the function signature (OTL_CONST_EXCEPTION was added to the function's parameter), but the change was not reflected in the manual. The documentation bug is fixed in this release.
30-Aug-2009. New (in OTL 4.0.200):

Gerrit Hobbelt from Netherlands contributed a few ideas, bug reports, bug fixes, and some code for new functionality. I adapted most of them and had to rework the rest for this new release of OTL. I also fixed a couple of unrelated bugs:

  • BUG: When a fractional part ("fraction") of otl_datetime has more decimal significant digits than MS SQL Server 2005/2008 can handle, say, the fractional part is .1234 for a datetime table column, or .12345678 for a datetime2 table column, MS SQL Server returns an error. It is actually a known feature of MS SQL Server. MSDN Web site describes a workaround, but it isn't clear whether it would work with the rest of the database types, supported by OTL. This release of OTL uses the otl_datetime.frac_precision to truncate the decimal significant digits beyond the specified precision. Such databases as Oracle, or DB2 don't return an error when the second fractional part is larger than the corresponding timestamps data types can handle. However, the timestamp values don't get rounded up or truncated correctly by the databases. So, it's recommended that the timestamp values should be within the specified precision. OTL will truncate the redundant decimal significant digits, which is more correct than it was before.

  • BUG: In two OTL tracing statements, calls to otl_stream::describe_next_out_var(), otl_stream::describe_next_in_var() may return 0 pointers, which may results in the program crash. In this release, the checks for 0 pointers were added to the OTL tracing statements in order to prevent the program crash.

  • BUG: When #define OTL_ODBC is used, an otl_connect object doesn't recover well after an unsuccessful call to SQLAllocHandle(). The otl_connect object could be destroyed and recreated again as a workaround, but it's not desirable. The bug is fixed in this release.

  • BUG: A problem was reported that when Oracle RAW columns are used with :v<raw[XXX]> bind variables, and when a RAW NULL value is written into the stream, then sometimes all the subsequent RAW values get written as NULLs. The bug is fixed in this release.

  • BUG: A problem was reported that when :v<varchar_long> is used in the WHERE clause of a SELECT statement with PostgreSQL, it doesn't work. The problem was that very few database types allow <varchar_long> to be used in a WHERE clause, and OTL didn't implement it properly. The bug is fixed in this release.

  • TYPOS: Two typos were fixed in  "operator >>" in OTL tracing statements. "operator >>"'s were changed to "operator <<" to show the right operator names. Anybody who has "OTL tracing based log parser" scripts may want to run tests to check to see whether the scripts still work correctly.

  • CODE CLEANUP: A few references to otl_exception& within the OTL header file were changed to OTL_CONST_EXCEPTION otl_exception&. #define OTL_CONST_EXCEPTION is defined as const under #define OTL_ANSI_CPP, otherwise it is empty.

  • NEW FUNCTIONALITY: OTL used the US date format in OTL tracing statements. This release introduces the following two new #defines that parameterize the data format in OTL trace statements: OTL_TRACE_FORMAT_DATETIME, OTL_TRACE_FORMAT_TZ_DATETIME.

  • NEW FUNCTIONALITY: This release introduces two new functions:
  • NEW COMPILER VERSION: This release compiles clean with GNU C++ 4.4.1, which was released a month ago.

  • OTL LICENSE: The OTL license hasn't changed since 1996. It was a one clause Free Software license. I heard a fair amount of criticism about the OTL license being a "non-license", etc. This release (and subsequent releases) will use the official, two-clause text of Open BSD license:

    // ORACLE, ODBC and DB2/CLI Template Library, Version 4.0.200,
    // Copyright (C) 1992-2011, Sergei Kuchin (skuchin@gmail.com)
    //
    // This library is free software. Permission to use, copy, modify,
    // and/or distribute this software for any purpose with or without fee
    // is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice and
    // this permission notice appear in all copies.
    //
    // THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
    // WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
    // MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
    // ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
    // WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
    // ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
    // OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
    //
    // a.k.a. as Open BSD license

    See the OTL header file (otlv4.h) for more detail .

    The first clause states the same thing as the OTL old license. The second clause states that "The Software" is provided "AS IS". If anybody has any concerns about this change in the text of OTL license, please, let me know.
15-Aug-2009. New (in OTL 4.0.199):

  • Copy constructor and assignment operator were reported to be missing from otl_long_unicode_string class. The bug is fixed in this release.

  • A link to OTL code example 454 (for PostgreSQL) was reported to be broken. The link is fixed in this release.
02-Aug-2009. New (in OTL 4.0.198, updated):

  • OTL 4.0.198 has been successfully tested with the 32-bit PostgreSQL 8.3.7 and the 32-bit pgODBC 8.03.04 driver in Windows. 64-bit pgODBC was reported to have problems when the bulk interface was used (otl_stream buffer size >1). I encourage everybody to report problems like that to the development team of the PostgreSQL ODBC drivers.

08-Jul-2009. New (in OTL 4.0.198, updated):

  • OTL 4.0.198 has been successfully compiled and tested with GNU C++ 4.4.0, which was released a couple of months ago. OTL compiles clean with GNU C++ 4.4.0.

18-Jun-2009. New (in OTL 4.0.198):

  • A problem was reported that MS SQL Server's BACKUP command fails when executed via otl_connect::direct_exec(). The problem is the BACKUP command returns from direct_exec() right away, and the output from the BACKUP commands is supposed to be retrieved by calls to SQLGetDiagRec() in a loop. MS SQL Server has a separate category of such commands: BACKUP, DBCC, etc. direct_exec() deallocates the underlying SQL statement resource right after it gets control back, which is the problem. In order to work around the problem, the otl_stream class has been extended to process MS SQL Server commands such as BACKUP, DBCC, etc. The following new #define and otl_stream function are introduced in this release:


    Also, see examples 688, 689.
6-Jun-2009. New (in OTL 4.0.197):

  • A problem was reported that when OTL defined "Incompatible data types in stream operation" exception is thrown from an INSERT statement based otl_stream, no good rows get inserted into the table. This behavior is inconsistent with, say, when a "primary key violation" exception is thrown. The difference between the primary key violation and the incompatible data types in stream operation exception is that the latter is contained to the OTL code itself. The following new function is introduced in this release for efficient otl_stream recovery: reset_to_last_valid_row().
3-Jun-2009. New (in OTL 4.0.196):

  • A bug was reported that under #define OTL_ODBC_MULTI_MODE, when the following code runs against  a MySQL database, otl_null() doesn't get written into the F2 table column correctly:
    ...
     otl_long_string f2(6000);
     otl_stream o;
     o.set_lob_stream_mode(true);
     o.open(1,
            "insert into test_tab (F1,F2,F3) values"
            "(:f1<int>,:f2<double>,:f3<varchar_long>) ",
            db
           );
     o.set_commit(0); 
     int i,j;
     otl_lob_stream lob;
     for(i=0;i<=7;++i){
      o<<i;
      if(i==0||i==2||i==4||i==6)
        o<<i+12.56;
      else
        o<<otl_null(); // doesn't work correctly
      o<<lob;
      for(j=0;j<50;++j)
       f2[j]='*';
      f2[50]='?';
      f2.set_len(51);

      lob.set_len(51+23);
      lob<<f2;
      f2[22]='?';
      f2.set_len(23);
      lob<<f2;
      lob.close(); 
     }
     db.commit();
     ...

    It's not known at this time whether it's a bug or a feature of MyODBC driver. The same code works correctly at least with DB2 and MS SQL Server ODBC drivers. The otl_stream's internal buffers reinitialization algorithm was changed in this release to work around this "feature" of MyODBC. The change is not specific to MyODBC.
25-May-2009. New (in OTL 4.0.195):

  • A bug was reported that under some circumstances when OTL/ODBC is used with PostgreSQL, and when #define OTL_ODBC_ALTERNATE_RPC is defined, OTL throws the "function sequence error" when a SELECT statement is instantiated in an otl_stream. The bug seems to be different from the bug that was fixed in OTL 4.0.194. The new bug is fixed in this release.
20-May-2009. New (in OTL 4.0.194):

  • A bug was reported that under some circumstances when OTL/ODBC is used with PostgreSQL, and when #define OTL_ODBC_ALTERNATE_RPC is defined, OTL throws the "function sequence error" exception when a SELECT statement is instantiated in an otl_stream. This bug is fixed in this release.

  • #define OTL_ODBC_ALTERNATE_RPC has been added to the PostgreSQL code examples to reflect the latest recommendations for PostgreSQL and OTL.
New (in OTL 4.0.193):

  • A bug was reported that the following function was missing:

    class otl_stream_read_iterator{
    ...
       void get(const char* var_name, double& n);
    ...

    The bug is fixed in this release.
New (in OTL 4.0.192):
New (in OTL 4.0.191):

  • A problem was reported that OTL 4.0.190's new RPC mechanism broke some OTL/ODBC based C++ code. This release reinstates the old RPC, SQLRowCount() mechanism, and adds the following new #define to accommodate the PostgreSQL ODBC driver quirks: OTL_ODBC_ALTERNATE_RPC. Those who need precise RPC counts for PostgreSQL may want to enable the new #define.
New (in OTL 4.0.190):

  • A problem was reported  that PostgreSQL ODBC driver on a bulk INSERT statement returns one row count per inserted row instead of one row count with the total of "rows processed". It doesn't contradict the ODBC specification, though. However, OTL relies on just one row count, which is not what the PostgreSQL ODBC driver returns. OTL 4.0.188 already worked around this problem, but otl_stream::get_rpc() still returns 1 instead of the actual number of affected rows. This release changes the "get rpc" scheme a little bit, at least for ODBCVER >= 3.0 in order to get the right RPC count from the PostgreSQL ODBC driver. This new scheme (ODBC attribute SQL_ATTR_PARAMS_PROCESSED_PTR for SQL statements) works fine with the rest OTL supported database types.
New (in OTL 4.0.189):

  • The following buffer overrun was reported in OTL/ORA7:

     int describe_column
     (otl_column_desc& col,
      const int column_num,
      int& eof_desc)
     {
        sb1 name[241];
        nlen=sizeof(name);
        int temp_rc=odescr
           (&cda,
            column_num,
            &dbsize,
            &dbtype,
            &name[0],
            &nlen,
            &dsize,
            &prec,
            &scale,
            &nullok);
        if(temp_rc==0)name[nlen]=0;
        ...

    It happens very rarely, and it's not clear why it happens at all, when the odescr() function returns success (0), and at the same time it doesn't modify the output nlen parameter. The bug is fixed in this release.
New (in OTL 4.0.188):

  • A problem was reported when OTL is used with the PostgreSQL ODBC driver and an INSERT statement in the bulk interface mode (otl_stream buffer size >1), more rows than expected could be inserted into the table in some cases. OTL relies on the underlying ODBC driver to return a correct "rows processed count" (RPC) when SQLRowCount() is called right after the INSERT statement gets executed. PostgreSQL ODBC driver always returns 1, which makes OTL believe that the RPC from INSERT was 1, and OTL doesn't have to set the SQL_ATTR_PARAMSET_SIZE attribute of the INSERT statement. This release of OTL works around the RPC feature of the PostgreSQL ODBC driver, and inserts the correct number of rows into the table.

  • This release introduces basic support for SQLGetTypeInfo() (data dictionary ODBC/DB2 CLI  function) . The function returns a list of data types supported by the database server. How to call ODBC data dictionary functions, see the corresponding OTL code examples.

  • MySQL OTL code examples have been reworked to show a technique of doing a multi-row INSERT by using the multi-row VALUES clause in an INSERT statement when the otl_stream buffer size is set to 1. This technique is a workaround of the lack of the bulk interface support in MySQL.
New (in OTL 4.0.187):

  • A problem was reported in Oracle 10g, when #define OTL_ORA_TIMESTAMP is defined, that it takes 10 times longer than usual to retrieve Oracle TIMESTAMP values. The Oracle 10g JDBC driver seems to have the same problem. #define OTL_ORA7_STRING_TO_TIMESTAMP/OTL_ORA7_TIMESTAMP_TO_STRING can be used as a workaround for the problem. See example 473 for more detail. The same technique can be used under #define OTL_UNICODE.
New (in OTL 4.0.186):

  • A bug was reported that when in OTL/ODBC when the following flavor of otl_connect::rlogon() is used, the auto-commit parameter has no effect if it's set to 0. The bug is fixed in this release.
New (in OTL 4.0.185):

  • This release introduces the following new #define: OTL_ORA_MAP_BIGINT_TO_LONG. It enables mapping from <bigint> to singed 64-bit longs for 64-bit OCIs on LP64 platforms.

  • OTL_ODBC_TIME_ZONE, OTL_ODBC_STRING_TO_TIMESTAMP, OTL_ODBC_TIMESTAMP_TO_STRING were introduced a few releases ago as a way to work with TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE (PostgreSQL, Oracle) / timestampoffset (MS SQL Server 2008) via ODBC. A bug was reported that when #define OTL_UNICODE is enabled, and the #define's above are enabled as well, the code doesn't return the right results. The bug is fixed in this release. See also examples 685, and 686.

  • A bug was reported that when an empty, numeric, PL/SQL, STL-vector based container is being passed into a stored procedure call, it causes the program to crash. The bug is fixed in this release.
New (in OTL 4.0.184):

  • The OTL online manual is reformatted in order to make it more readable (function lists have been put in HTML tables). Comments and suggestions to improve the manual are welcome.

  • otl_stream::get_dirty_buf_len() is extended to work with SELECT statements, Oracle PL/SQL reference cursors, and stored procedures that return implicit result sets: it returns the number of rows in the stream buffer that are yet to be read.

  • A bug was reported that otl_refcur_stream::rewind() causes the Oracle "fetch out of sequence" error. The reporter of the bug pointed out that to "rewind the reference cursor" means to re-execute the master PL/SQL block the reference cursor belongs to. otl_refcur_stream::rewind() can't be easily eliminated because it is derived from otl_read_stream_interface, when #define OTL_ORA_DECLARE_COMMON_READ_STREAM_INTERFACE is enabled. Instead, otl_refcur_stream::rewind() was made private in this release.

  • A bug was reported that the new "CHECK-END-OF-ROW" feature, which was introduced in OTL 4.0.181, is no longer available. The bug is fixed in this release.

  • A bug was reported that the explicit :#N<raw[XXX]> override for SELECT statements maps to <raw_long>, and that the bulk interface (stream buffer size >1) for Oracle doesn't work as a result. The bug is fixed in this release.
New (in OTL 4.0.183):

  • The following Visaul C++ 8 compilation warning was reported for OTL 4.0.182, line 13840 under #define OTL_FUNC_THROW_SPEC_ON, and #define OTL_ODBC:

    C4297: 'function' : function assumed not to throw an exception but does

    The warning is fixed in this release.
New (in OTL 4.0.182):

  • This release extends the functionality of the otl_stream::create_stored_proc_call() function: it can handle stored procedures / functions that have more than one output reference cursor parameters and also input / output parameters in addition to the reference cursor parameters. The following new global constant was added to indicate the new type ot stored procedures: otl_mixed_refcur_stream_type. See also example 153 for more detail.

New (in OTL 4.0.181):

  • A bug was reported that in a WHERE clause in a SELECT statement, :v<raw[XXX]> doesn't work under #defines OTL_ORAXXX, and the following OTL defined otl_exception gets raised:

         Not all input variables have been initialized

    The problem is fixed in this release.

  • This release introduces otl_stream::check_end_of_row() function (or its operator>>() form) and the "END-OF-ROW check failed" otl_exception, in order to address the "row tearing" problem. The problem is that, say, a SELECT statement has two int columns, and the loop to read rows from the SELECT statement actually reads three int values at a time, for example:

    otl_stream sql(10,"select a, b from some_table",db); // only TWO columns

    while(!sql.eof()){
        int a, b, c;
        sql>>a>>b>>c; // this causes "row-tearing"
        // ...
    }

    The way OTL uses the C++ stream idiom is said to be unsafe, and that it potentially could cause a "row-tearing" problem, which could be very hard to troubleshoot and maintain. The check_end_of_row() function addresses the problem, so, in order to make sure the code is safe and maintainable, here's how the example above can be rewritten:

    otl_stream sql(10,"select a, b from some_table",db); // only TWO columns

    while (!sql.eof()){
        int a, b;
        sql>>a>>b;
        sql.check_end_of_row();
        // ...
    }

    or this way

    otl_stream sql(10,"select a, b from some_table",db); // only TWO columns

    while (!sql.eof()){
        int a, b;
        sql>>a>>b>>endr;
        // ...
    }

    In case if the number of columns in the SELECT statement changes, and the actual loop is not changed, the check_end_of_row() function (or its alternative operator>>() form) will throw this exception.

    I personally don't believe that the OTL design is too bad to cause "row-tearing" that is hard to troubleshoot. Usually,  a SELECT statement has columns of more than one data type, so when the "row is torn", OTL will throw the usual "incompatible data types in stream operation" exception, and it will be obvious that the code is wrong.

    Those developers, who think that the "row tearing" is a serious problem and don't want to use the check_end_of_row() function, can use the OTL stream read iterator, which provides JDBC-like getter interface.

    otl_stream::check_end_of_row() function is not mandatory, so OTL will continue to work as before.


New (in OTL 4.0.180):

  • This release introduces the following new function: otl_stream::get_dirty_buf_len(). The feature was requested by a couple of developers (from Canada and China).

New (in OTL 4.0.179):

  • A documentation bug was reported that :v<long> (bind variable) is not always a signed 32-bit integer on 64-bit platforms. The documentation has been corrected in this release to provide a more detailed explanation on the topic.

  • OTL 4.0.176 was refactored to make undocumented class public data members in OTL private or protected. A compilation problem was reported around the area of those previously public data members. The following method has been added to the otl_stream class (for all flavors of OTL) in order to address the compilation issue:

      int get_connected() const {return connected;}

  • Several projects asked for the following code to be included into the OTL header file:

    #if defined(OTL_INCLUDE_0)
    #include "otl_include_0.h"
    #endif

    The rationale for it is that these projects need to include their own credentials to the OTL header file, so that, when the corresponding binary file gets generated, the credentials will be present in the binary as a string. Therefore, the exact version/build number of the binary can be easily identified.

New (in OTL 4.0.178):

  • The following deficiency was reported in the OTL tracing:

    ...
    (0) MY OTL TRACE ==> otl_stream(this=0012FEFC)::open
    (buffer_size=5, sqlstm=select * from test_tab where f1>=:f<int> 
    and f1<=:ff<int>*2, connect=004332CC); 
    (1) MY OTL TRACE ==> otl_stream(this=0012FEFC)::operator <<
    (char*: ftype=1, placeholder=:f2, value="Name10"); 
    (2) MY OTL TRACE ==> otl_stream, executing SQL Stm=insert into 
    test_tab values(:f1     ,:f2          ), current batch size=10, row offset=0
    ...
    (3) MY OTL TRACE ==> otl_stream, executing SQL Stm=
    select * from test_tab where f1>=:f      and f1<=:ff     *2, buffer size=5
    (4) MY OTL TRACE ==> otl_stream, fetched the first batch 
    of rows, SQL Stm=select * from test_tab where f1>=:f      and f1<=:ff     *2, RPC=5
    ...

    (2), (3), and (4) don't have the stream address, which makes it difficult to keep track of different instances of OTL streams that have the same SQL statement, and especially when the streams are used in different threads. The deficiency is fixed in this release. The OTL trace for the example above is going to look like this:

    ...
    (0) MY OTL TRACE ==> otl_stream(this=0012FEFC)::open
    (buffer_size=5, sqlstm=select * from test_tab 
    where f1>=:f<int> and f1<=:ff<int>*2, connect=004332CC); 
    (1) MY OTL TRACE ==> otl_stream(this=0012FEFC)::operator <<
    (char*: ftype=1, placeholder=:f2, value="Name10"); 
    (2) MY OTL TRACE ==> otl_stream(this=0012FEFC), executing SQL Stm=
    insert into test_tab values(:f1     ,:f2          ), 
    current batch size=10, row offset=0
    ...
    (3) MY OTL TRACE ==> otl_stream(this=0012FECC), executing SQL Stm=
    select * from test_tab where f1>=:f      and f1<=:ff     *2, buffer size=5
    (4) MY OTL TRACE ==> otl_stream(this=0012FECC), fetched the first batch of rows, 
    SQL Stm=select * from test_tab where f1>=:f      and f1<=:ff     *2, RPC=5
    ...

  • A bug was reported that some OTL trace statements are missing for #define OTL_ORAXXX when reference cursors are used. The bug is fixed in this release

New (in OTL 4.0.177):

  • In order to address an issue, the following new question & answer has been added to the OTL F.A.Q.: How to insert or update MS SQL NVARCHAR / NCHAR values larger than 2000 (UTF-16) characters?

  • The previous release (OTL 4.0.176) was refactored to make undocumented class public data members in OTL private or protected. A compilation problem was reported around the area of those previously public data members. The following two  methods have been added to class otl_conn (under #define OTL_ORAXX, where XX>=8) in order to address the compilation issue:

    OCIServer* get_srvhp(){return srvhp;}
    OCISession* get_authp(){return authp;}

  • A problem was reported that when #define OTL_ORA10G is used, an otl_stream stream has :v<refcur,...>, and the stream's buffer size is > 1, the program crashes somewhere deep in the OCI layer. The stream's buffer size should be set to 1 when the stream has :v<refcur>. OTL is supposed to throw the otl_exception with error code of 32034, but it doesn't  The problem is fixed in this release.

New (in OTL 4.0.176):

  • OTL code has been refactored: public data members that weren't part of the documented public interfaces have been made private, or protected. This may break some OTL based code, if the code uses undocumented public data members in the OTL classes, that have been made private/protected in this release of OTL. Let me know right away if this happens, and I'll add appropriate accessor functions to the corresponding OTL classes. The reason for the refactoring of the OTL header file is that developers in many projects (I've heard from many enough) are adopting stricter standards for third-party libraries as well as their own code.

New (in OTL 4.0.175):

  • A bug was reported that otl_stream::create_stored_proc_call() couldn't find a procedure / function name if the procedure / function is available via Oracle synonym mechanism. The bug is fixed in this release: otl_stream::create_stored_proc_call() searches Oracle's data dictionary's user_synonyms and all_synonyms views in case if the procedure / function name is not found anywhere else.

  • A bug was reported that the otl_connect object can't fully recover from a database failure when OTL/ODBC is used with the Oracle ODBC driver for Oracle. OTL/ODBC doesn't deallocate the connect related underlying ODBC handles on otl_connect::logoff(). The assumption was that the ODBC driver's connection handles can be reused on the next otl_connect::rlogon(). Obviously, there are situations when the assumption is not true. The following new #define forces the otl_connect::logoff() to free ODBC connection related handles: OTL_ODBC_LOGOFF_FREES_HANDLES.

  • A bug was reported that otl_refcur_stream doesn't support the RAW type. The bug is fixed in this release.

  • A bug was reported that sometimes otl_subscriber class doesn't report table-wide events because the corresponding event bitmask contains the event bit + OCI_OPCODE_ALLROWS. The bug has been fixed in this release, and otl_subscriber's OnTableAlter(), OnTableDrop(), OnTableChange()'s signatures have been changed.

  • A problem was reported that Oracle CLOB-to-XMLType and XMLType-to_CLOB conversion didn't work for XMLType values larger than 4000 bytes. Example 678 has been added to show how to work around the problem.

  • MS SQL 2005 introduced Multiple Active Result Sets (MARS), which is not enabled by default. More and more applications require this feature to be enabled. This release of OTL introduces the following #define to enable the feature: OTL_ENABLE_MSSQL_MARS.

  • This release introduces support for MS SQL 2008 (new #define OTL_ODBC_MSSQL_2008, new OTL_MSSQL_2008_ODBC_CONNECT mode under #define OTL_ODBC_MULTI_MODE). For more detail, see also examples 679, 680, 681, 682, 683, 684.

  • This release of OTL compiles clean with the latest g++: 4.3.2 (which has been released recently).

New (in OTL 4.0.174):

  • OTL 4.0.173 fixed the LOB-stream-mode-NULL bug for OTL/DB2-CLI, but it introduced the same bug in OTL/OCI. The bug is fixed in this release.

  • ODBC doesn't support timestamps with time zone components yet. However, there is a need to work with "TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE" columns via ODBC. For example, PostgreSQL supports TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE. This version of OTL intrdoces the following new #define to address the need: OTL_ODBC_TIME_ZONE, OTL_ODBC_STRING_TO_TIMESTAMP, OTL_ODBC_TIMESTAMP_TO_STRING. See example 676 for more detail.

    A problem was reported that some versions of the PostgreSQL ODBC driver don't populate the timestamp's fractional part. The new #defines can be used as a workaround to solve the problem. See example 676 for more detail.

  • A problem was reported that xlC version 6 doesn't support template member functions. The bug is fixed in this release (for xlC, #define OTL_NO_TMPL_MEMBER_FUNC_SUPPORT gets enabled by default).

New (in  OTL 4.0.173):

  • The following compilation errors were reported when OTL is being compiled under Debian on AMD64, #define OTL_ODBC_UNIX, and #define OTL_ODBC_MULTI_MODE:

    In file included from test.cpp:12: 
    ./otlv4.h: In member function 'int odbc::otl_sel::first(odbc::otl_cur&,
    int&, int&, int&, int&, int)': 
    ./otlv4.h:12497: error: cannot convert 'SQLULEN*' to 'SQLROWSETSIZE*'
    for argument '4' to 'SQLRETURN SQLExtendedFetch(void*, SQLUSMALLINT,
    SQLROWOFFSET, SQLROWSETSIZE*, SQLUSMALLINT*)' 
    ./otlv4.h: In member function 'int odbc::otl_sel::next(odbc::otl_cur&,
    int&, int&, int&, int&, int)': 
    ./otlv4.h:12599: error: cannot convert 'SQLULEN*' to 'SQLROWSETSIZE*'
    for argument '4' to 'SQLRETURN SQLExtendedFetch(void*, SQLUSMALLINT,
    SQLROWOFFSET, SQLROWSETSIZE*, SQLUSMALLINT*)'

    The problem was due incompatible imlementations of ODBC in the 64-bit Windows, and in the 64-bit Unix ODBC package. If you read the comments in the SQL/ODBC related header files in unixodbc, you'd see that the implementors struggled with interpreting ambiguities in the 64-bit ODBC specification. Nobody says that life is perfect, and there is nothing a few #ifdefs can't fix. The problem is fixed in this release.

  • A bug was reported that when OTL is used with OTL_DB2_CLI., and an otl_stream is opened in the LOB stream mode (otl_stream::set_lob_stream_mode(true)), NULL values, say, in an INSERT statement, don't get processed correctly. Instead of inserting a NULL, OTL inserts a non-NULL value from a row prior to the one with the NULL. The bug is specific to OTL/DB2-CLI. OTL introduced a tweak a couple of years ago that resets the "NULL indicator" / "length" fields for each bind variable / array to the default "non-NULL" right after SQLExcute() is called. Apparently, DB2 CLI has some semi-documented behavior (maybe it's documented, only I couldn't find the right reference, so if somebody could point me to the right spot in the DB2 CLI manual, that would be helpful) that the "NULL indicator" / "length" field is still used by the DB2 CLI layer after SQLExecute() was already called under certain conditions. The bug is fixed in this release.

  • This release introduces the following #define: OTL_EXCEPTION_IS_DERIVED_FROM_STD_EXCEPTION. The #define is a shortcut for "otl_exception is derived std::excetion".

  • A few redundant calls to otl_null() were removed inside the OTL header file.

New (in OTL 4.0.172):

  • When #define OTL_FREETDS_ODBC_WORKAROUNDS is enabled, and, say, an INSERT statement is being executed against a table, even after otl_connect::commit() is called, the table still has an exlusive lock on the rows that were inserted into the table. The bug is fixed in this release. It looks like the bug in FreeTDS, which #define OTL_FREETDS_ODBC_WORKAROUNDS was meant to fix, is fixed now in FreeTDS. Check the FreeTDS Web site for more detail. Those who still use the version of FreeTDS with the original bug can continue using #define OTL_FREETDS_ODBC_WORKAROUNDS.

  • When otl_lob_stream is #defines OTL_ORAXX (where XX>=8), in a situation when a clob/blob gets returned from a PL/SQL stored procedure call and there is another output parameter that precedes the clob/blob, for example:

          begin
         GetClob(:f<char[30],out>, :c<clob,out>);
       end;

    In case if the preceding output parameter is NULL (:f is NULL), the clob (:c) is empty . The bug is fixed in this release. If the same parameters (:f and :c) get returned by a SELECT statement, such a bug doesn't exist.

New (in OTL 4.0.171):

  • #define OTL_VERSION_NUMBER in the OTL header file had a typo, it was set to 0x0400B0L instead of 0x0400AAL. The typo is fixed in this release.

  • The following constructor was broken:

       otl_value<otl_datetime>(const otl_null&):
        v(0),


































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































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








































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































  }

    The bug is fixed in this release.

  • When #define OTL_ORA8I, or OTL_ORA9I, or OTL_ORA10G, or OTL_ORA10G_R2, or OTL_ORA11G is defined along with #define OTL_UNICODE, SELECT trigger_body FROM all_triggers only returns 50% of the trigger body text (trigger_body is a LONG column) when read into an otl_long_unicode_string variable. For an unknown reason (I was unable to find any relevant information in the OCI manual, metalink.oracle.com, or on the Internet), the OCI sometimes returns the length of a Unicode LONG value in double-byte characters, and most of the time the length is returned in bytes. Thus, the reason for OTL returning 50% of the LONG text in SELECT trigger_body FROM all_triggers. The OCI always adds a NULL terminator character to a LONG string (in the case of Unicode, it's a double-byte NULL terminator). In this release, OTL has been changed to rely on the NULL terminator instead of the returned length for LONG values.

New (in OTL 4.0.170):

  • When #define OTL_UNICODE is enabled, otl_refcur_stream returns incorrect Unicode characaters for NVARCHAR2 values. OTL didn't set the OCI "Charset Form" correctly for NLS string columns (NVARCHAR2 / NCHAR). The problem is fixed in this release.

  • When #define OTL_ODBC_MULTI_MODE is enabled, OTL doesn't compile with 64-bit Visual C++ 2008 under 64-bit Windows. OTL had a variable declared as SQLUINTEGER (unsigned 32-bit integer). The variable was used in a call to SQLExtendedFetch() as the RowCountPtr parameter. The manual for 32-bit Visual C++ 7.1 said that the RowCountPtr should be SQLUINTEGER*, and in the actual function signature the parameter is SQLULEN*:

    In the doc:
         SQLRETURN SQLExtendedFetch(
              SQLHSTMT     StatementHandle,
              SQLUSMALLINT     FetchOrientation,
              SQLINTEGER     FetchOffset,
              SQLUINTEGER *     RowCountPtr,
              SQLUSMALLINT *     RowStatusArray);

    In the header file:
        SQLRETURN SQL_API SQLExtendedFetch(
              SQLHSTMT           hstmt,
              SQLUSMALLINT       fFetchType,
              SQLLEN             irow,
              SQLULEN            *pcrow,
              SQLUSMALLINT       *rgfRowStatus);

    The discrepancy between the manual and the actual function signature has been corrected in the latest MSDN article on SQLExtendedFetch.

    SQLUINTEGER and SQLULEN are not the same length in 64-bit Windows, that is why there was a compilation error in the 64-bit mode. The problem is fixed in this release.

  • When #define OTL_DB2_CLI is enabled, OTL doesn't compile with DB2 CLI 7.x client's include files: symbol SQL_XML is not defined. The problem is fixed in this release.

  • When #define OTL_ODBC_MSSQL_2005 is enabled, otl_stream_read_iterator is attached to an otl_stream that is opened in the LOB stream mode (otl_stream::set_lob_stream_mode(true)). The stream was opened with a SELECT statement that has a "TIMESTAMP" column, and an "IMAGE" column. Visual C++ 8's runtime's assert on a call to strcat_s() fails. The problem is fixed in this release.

  • OTL_ORA7_TIMESTAMP_TO_STRING and OTL_ORA7_STRING_TO_TIMESTAMP were introduced to support Oracle 9i's TMESTAMP dadatype under #define OTL_ORA7, This release introduces support for same #defines for OTL/OCIx where x >= 9 for easier migration of OTL legacy apps that use OTL_ORA7 to more recent OCIs (9.x, 10.x, 11.x). In example 473, #define OTL_ORA7 can be replaced with OTL_ORA9I, OTL_ORA10G, OTL_ORA10G_R2, or OTL_ORA11G.

New (in OTL 4.0.169):

  • When #define OTL_ORA_UTF8 is enabled, OTL may truncate a string value, for example:'schwarz+weiß' gets truncated to 'schwarz+wei' on a SELECT statement. OTL allocated the size of described VARCHAR / NVARCHAR columns in bytes, which was not sufficient to hold multibyte UTF8 characters that were stored as single bytes in the database. On the database side, character 'ß' is stored in one byte in the case if the database character set is "8-bit European", and the client / C++ side's is UTF8, it requires 2 bytes. If the database character set is UTF8, then there is no such problem. The problem has been fixed in this release

  • A compilation problem was reported for an unspecified version of Informix for Linux when #define OTL_INFORMIX_CLI is enabled. I asked the guy (presumably someone from P.R.C.) who reported the problem to email me his version of the Informix header files and object libraries.  He emailed me everything, I fixed the problem, emailed him the patch, but I haven't heard from him since.

    The compilation bug has been fixed in this release.

  • A problem was reported that when example 378 (for Oracle 8.x and higher) is rewritten to use #define OTL_UNICODE, otl_long_unicode_string, and std::wcout, the output looks like this:

       f1=1
          chunk #1, f2=*?, len=4001
       f1=2
          chunk #1, f2=##, len=6000
          chunk #2, f2=# , len=12000
          chunk #3, f2=# , len=12000
          chunk #4, f2=# , len=-9996
       f1=3
          chunk #1, f2=*?, len=4001

    It's obviously incorrect. The bug reporter also sent me a fix along with the bug report. The fix has been merged into this release.

New (in OTL 4.0.168):

  • Some projects need to be able to connect to multiple database types at the same time via ODBC. For example, to MySQL and TimesTen, or to MS SQL 2005 and Sybase. OTL has specific #define's for some database types (like #define OTL_ODBC_MSSQL_2005, or #define OTL_ODBC_POSTGRESQL, etc.), which makes it impossible to connect to multiple database types at the same time. In order to address the issue, this release introduces #define OTL_ODBC_MULTI_MODE, and otl_connect::set_connection_mode(). For more detail, see example 675.

New (in OTL 4.0.167):

  • In this release or higher, #define OTL_UNCAUGHT_EXCEPTION_OWN_NAMESPACE is obsolete. The underlying problem  when OTL gets compiled with #define OTL_STLPORT has been fixed. It's recommended to comment out  #define.OTL_UNCAUGHT_EXCEPTION_OWN_NAMESPACE.

  • Some project still use Visual C++ 6.0. OTL 4.0.162 made #define OTL_UNCAUGHT_EXCEPTION_ON the default. VC 6.0's std::uncaught_exception() always returns true, meaning that it doesn't work the way the C++ standard defines. This release stops enabling  #define OTL_UNCAUGHT_EXCEPTION_ON for VC 6.0 for backward compatibility in order to allow the OTL based  projects that are stiil using VC 6.0 to continue to work.

  • This release introduces basic support for DB2 XML, MS SQL XML, and Oracle XMLType datatypes. For more detail, see the following code examples:

  • This release compiles clean with g++ 4.3.0 when the following command line options are enabled:

    • -Wshadow

    • -Wall

    • -Wundef

    • -Wpointer-arith

    • -Wunused

    • -Wreorder

    • -Wcast-qual

    • -Wno-uninitialized

    • -Wcast-align

    • -Wconversion

    • -Wsign-compare

    • -Werror

    • -Wwrite-strings

    • -Wcomments

    • -Wunused-variable

    • -Wparentheses

    • -ansi

    • -Wformat

    • -Wstrict-aliasing=2

    • -Wstrict-null-sentinel

    • -fstrict-aliasing

    • -Wold-style-cast

    • -Woverloaded-virtual

    • -Wctor-dtor-privacy

    • -Wnon-virtual-dtor

    • -Wsign-promo

    • -Wextra

    • -Wfloat-equal

    • -Wmissing-noreturn

    • -Wmissing-format-attribute

    • -Weffc++

  • This release has been reworked to compile clean with g++'s -Weffc++. effc++ warns about violations of the following style guidelines from Scott Meyers™ Effective C++ book:

    • Item 6: Distinguish between prefix and postfix forms of increment and decrement operators.

    • Item 7: Never overload operators "&&", "||", or ",".

    • Item 11: Define a copy constructor and an assignment operator for classes with dynamically allocated memory.

    • Item 12: Prefer initialization to assignment in constructors.

    • Item 14: Make destructors virtual in base classes.

    • Item 15: Have "operator=" return a reference to *this.

    • Item 23: Don't try to return a reference when you must return an object.

New (in OTL 4.0.166):

  • A bug was reported that otl_connect::rollback() has no effect when OTL is used in a combination with FreeTDS/ODBC against MS SQL. It turned out that the feature wasn't implemnted in FreeTDS/ODBC. In order to work around the problem, this release introduces #define OTL_FREETDS_ODBC_WORKAROUNDS. See MS SQL Server / FreeTDS ODBC examples for more detail. The new #define is recommended for use until a fix becomes available.

    FreeTDS/ODBC seems to have a similar problem with otl_connect::rlogon()'s auto-commit with Sybase. However, the new #define is not recommended as a workaround for Sybase, because otl_connect::auto_commit_off() and otl_connect::auto_commit_on() functions seem to work with Sybase. Until a fix becomes available, auto_commit_on() / auto_commit_off() are recommended for use. See for Sybase SQL Server / FreeTDS ODBC examples more detail.

    Also, FreeTDS/ODBC doesn't seem to support "transaction isolation" level, that is, otl_connect::set_transaction_isolation_level() has no effect. Until the feature is implemented in FreeTDS/ODBC, it's recommended that explicit server side settings should be used instead. For example, MS SQL supports an explicit (NOLOCK) option on the FROM clause in a SELECT statement. Sybase has the "set transaction isolation level X" command to set an explicit, session-wide transaction isolation level. For more detail, see examples 516 (MS SQL), and 561 (Sybase).

    Many thanks to James Lowden the maintainer of FreeTDS for clarifying the issues. More issues may be uncovered as more developers begin using OTL with FreeTDS/ODBC. I'd recommend those developers to subsribe to the FreeTDS mailing list to keep track of the latest developments.


New (in OTL 4.0.165):

  • A bug was reported that OTL/OCI crashes (memory access violation) the program when a refcur bind variable is used, and the otl_stream buffer size is greater than 1. The stream buffer size actually has to be set to 1 in this case. In order to diagnose cases like this one, OTL introduces the following new otl_exception: code=32034, otl_stream buffer size should be 1 when refcur or plsql table is used. OTL should throw the new exception instead of memory access violation.

  • A new default for #define OTL_UNCAUGHT_EXCEPTION_ON was introduced in OTL 4.0.162. The #define was supposed to wortk when #define OTL_STL is defined. This release extends #define OTL_UNCAUGHT_EXCEPTION_ON to work without requiring OTL_STL to be defined first, and OTL_UNCAUGHT_EXCEPTION_ON is on by default. If anybody has compilation issues with this new arrangement, let me know, and we'd work something out.

New (in OTL 4.0.164):

  • A bug was reported that when #define OTL_ORA10G_R2 is used, and a PL/SQL table of NUMBER(14,4) from  a PL/SQL package gets bound with a :var<double,out[XX]> variable, an otl_exception gets thrown that has the following Oracle error message:

    PLS-00418: array bind type must match PL/SQL table row type

    The bug is fixed in this release. OCI10/11 has flaky support for PL/SQL tables of BINARY_FLOAT / BINARY_DOUBLE, which makes it impossible to implement any reliable scheme for supporting PL/SQL tables of NUMBER and PL/SQL table of BINARY_FLOAT /BINARY_DOUBLE without introducing special data types (for example, "binary_float" in addition to "float", which is already binary) for PL/SQL tables BINARY_FLOAT / BINARY_DOUBLE. Until Oracle straightens out the support for PL/SQL tables of BINARY_FLOAT / BINARY_DOUBLE, and the appropriate changes are made to OTL, it's recommended to use PL/SQL tables of NUMBERs instead.

  • A bug was reported that when #define UNICODE / _UNICODE, OTL_UNICODE, and OTL_ODBC are defined, and when a table has an accented column name in it (for example,: assigné),  function SQLDescribeCol() returns bad information about the column, which results in the program's crash. The second bug related to accented column names was reported when otl_connect::direct_exec() function is used with accented table columns. The bugs were due to the fact that a type cast to a signed char* was used instead of unsigned char*. The bugs are fixed in this release.

    OTL doesn't have full support for UTF16 based SQL statement text. However, SQL statements based on one-byte character sets  should be fully supported.

New (in OTL 4.0.163):

  • This release compiles clean with Visual C++ 9 (Visual Studio 2008, which came out recently).

  • An OTL defined exception has been changed in this release to the following in order to carry more useful information:

    Writing CLOB/BLOB in stream mode: actual size is greater than specified, trying to store X1 bytes / Unicode characters at offset X2. New length: X3 would be bigger than length of lob: X4.

    The text of the exception (of the otl_exception class) carries more information than before to simplify troubleshooting of incorrect custom C++ code. This change was originally submitted as a patch and merged into this release with some modifications.

  • The following minor error was reported in OTL code example 383: 

    The "drop table test_tab" statement silently fails when the table does
    not exist (as expected) but since db.commit() isn't called immediately
    afterward the transaction is still open and left in an error status.  
    Any statement issued after that will fail with the following error:
    "ERROR:  current transaction is aborted, commands ignored until end of
    transaction block"

    Similar errors were present in some of the PostgreSQL examples. All the errors have been fixed in this release.

New (in OTL 4.0.162):

  • This release introduces the following code examples for Informix CLI: examples 625-658. OTL has supported Informix via Informix CLI for a few years. Informix CLI in Windows is indistinguishable from ODBC, so in Windows #define OTL_ODBC can used with Informix CLI. In Unix, #define OTL_INFORMIX_CLI can be used.

  • A bug was reported that when OTL is used with TimesTen 7.0.2 or higher, it is impossible to set the TT Prefetch size to 0, which enables the default TT Prefetch sizes (see TT manuals for more detail). The bug is fixed is this release. See also the stream buffer size description.

  • A compilation bug was reported that when OTL is being compiled with g++ with -ansi commannd line option, and  #define OTL_ACE. A patch was posted in the OTL discussion forum. The patch has been merged with this release.

  • The following formatting problem was reported when OTL tracing is enabled:

    MY OTL TRACE ==> otl_connect(this=0042A1D8)::rlogon(connect_str="/******@mssql", auto_commit=0);

    The user id is missing from the trace. The problem is fixed in this release.

  • In order to address user complaints about aborting / terminating programs in the case of a cascade of OTL exceptions, the following #define has been made the default in this release: #define OTL_UNCAUGHT_EXCEPTION_ON. From the beginning, OTL, according to some C++ gurus who would hit me in the head, should not have had "throwing destructors". See more detail on the history of the question here.

    By completely eliminating throwing desctructors, OTL would have broken a lot of existing custom code (the code would have to be rewritten), so the decision had been made to introduce #define OTL_UNCAUGHT_EXCEPTION_ON.

    Only really old C++ compilers like Visual C++ 6.0 don't support the required C++ function (uncaught_exception()). If anybody experience any problems with this new default setting, let me know, we would work something out.

    Those who do not want OTL destructors to "throw" can use     #define OTL_DESTRUCTORS_DO_NOT_THROW, but they would have to call the close() function all otl_streams explicitly, before each stream goes out scope.

New (in OTL 4.0.161):

  • A bug was reported that when #define OTL_ORA10G (or OTL_ORA10G_R2, or OTL_ORA11G) is used against an Oracle 9i database backend, the OCI10 native SQLT_BDOUBLE / SQLT_BFLOAT bindings don't work. The bug is fixed in this release, and the fix can be enabled with #define OTL_ORA_LEGACY_NUMERIC_TYPES.

  • A bug was reported that when #defines OTL_ORA8 / 8I/ 9I / 10G / 10G_R2 / 11G are used with otl_lob_stream, and when the value of a CLOB/BLOB in a table goes from, say a size > 0 to the size of 0, the actual value doesn't get set to the size of 0. The bug fixed in this release.

  • A bug was reported that when #define OTL_ORA8 / 8I / 9I / 10G / 10G_R2 / 11G is defined along with #define OTL_ODBC_TIMESTEN_UNIX / OTL_ODBC_TIMESTEN_WINDOWS, and the resulting executable is linked with both the OCI and the TimesTen object libraries, the program's performance (the Oracle side in particular) degrades tenfold. The bug is fixed in this release.

  • A bug was reported that when an otl_exception gets thrown and an error is caused by an nchar or an nclob bind variable, the var_info member of the otl_exception isn't populated correctly. In particular, the data type is blank isntead of NCHAR, or NLOB. The bug is fixed in this release.

  • This release introduces the following new #define OTL_ODBC_ENTERPRISEDB. The #define can be used with Enterprise DB, a commecial, Oracle compatible offshoot of PostgreSQL. Also, see examples 586-624 for more detail.

New (in OTL 4.0.160):

  • Oracle 11g Release 1 came out recently. OTL introduces the following new #define to start the OTL/OCI11g series: #define OTL_ORA11G.

  • When OTL_ODBC, OTL_BIGINT, OTL_STR_TO_BIGINT, and OTL_BIGINT_TO_STR are defined, OTL does not compile with VC++ 2005, and xlC (C++ in AIX). The bug is fixed in this release.

  • When OTL_DEFAULT_STRING_NULL_TO_VAL, OTL_UNICODE are defined together, and otl_refcur_stream is used, the default string value that the OTL_DEFAULT_STRING_NULL_VAL defines doesn't get returned correctly in the case if the actual value to be returned is NULL. The bug is fixed in this release.

  • otl_stream_read_iterator::get(const int pos, unsigned char* s) was reported to have a compilation error on an unspecified C++ compiler, on an unspecified platform. The proposed code change was merged into this release. .

New (in OTL 4.0.159):

  • In OTL 4.0.158, a bug was introduced which causes the following error message when an <int> bind variable is used:

    [Microsoft][SQL Native Client][SQL Server]Invalid 2-Parameter (''): The
    0x23 data typ is a LOB marked as obsolete and used as output parameter.
    Obsolete types are not supported as output parameters.

    The bug is fixed in this release.

  • C++Builder 2007 generates the following error when compiling OTL:

        Error error 2285: E2285 Could not find a match for 'operator otl_ora8_inout_stream::operator>>(float)

    There are similar errors in the rest of the numeric operators >>() of the same class. The error goes away when #define OTL_NO_TMPL_MEMBER_FUNC_SUPPORT is enabled. The bug is fixed in this release by enabling the #define for Borland C++ by default.

  • Michael Shishkin from Russia contributed the otl_subscriber class that uses the Oracle Database Change Notification Interface to implement a more convenient publish / subscribe mechanism compared to the straight OCI. The otl_subscriber class is optional and can be enabled via #define OTL_ORA_SUBSCRIBE. See also example 585.

New in (OTL 4.0.158):

  • When #define OTL_UNICODE_EXCEPTION_AND_RLOGON and #define _UNICODE / UNICODE (standard C/C++ #defines for Unicode applications) are enabled, and otl_connect::rlogon() is used with ODBC-like style connect strings ("UID=scott;PWD=tiger;DSN=mssql", etc.), the underlying SQLDriverConnect() call may crash the program, because the size of the output string buffer was specified in bytes instead of wide characters. The bug is fixed in this release:

           Before (line 9678):

           status=SQLDriverConnect
            (hdbc,
             0,
             temp_connect_str2,
             OTL_SCAST(short,len),
             out_str,
             sizeof(out_str),
             &out_len,
             SQL_DRIVER_NOPROMPT);

           Now (line 9678):

       status=SQLDriverConnect
        (hdbc,
         0,
         temp_connect_str2,
         OTL_SCAST(short,len),
         out_str,
         sizeof(out_str)    /sizeof(SQLWCHAR),
         &out_len,
         SQL_DRIVER_NOPROMPT);

  • In OTL/OCI8/9/10  a break statetement was missing in

    27195  void open
    27196  (const otl_stream_buffer_size_type arr_size,
            const char* sqlstm,
            otl_connect& db,
            const char* ref_cur_placeholder=0,
            const char* sqlstm_label=0)
            OTL_THROWS_OTL_EXCEPTION
              ...
    27213     case otl_select_stream_type:
                 ...
                     break;

    The bug is fixed is this release.

  • Following new #define is introduced: OTL_MAP_LONG_TO_SQL_C_SBIGINT. It maps 64-bit longs into SQL_C_BIGINT instead of SQL_C_SLONG in OTL/ODBC/DB2-CLI.

  • The question on MySQL in the F.A.Q was corrected to explain that InnoDB type tables can be used with OTL.

New in (OTL 4.0.157):

  • A problem was reported that OTL doesn't compile with aCC (HP ANSI C++ B3910B A.03.63), and it requires #define OTL_NO_TMPL_MEMBER_FUNC_SUPPORT to be enabled. The problem is fixed in this release, and the aCC compiler has been added to the list of C++ compilers for which the "no template member function support" feature is enabled by default.

  • A problem was reported that when OTL is used with STL Port, and when STL Port is not configured to expose some standard C++ functions like uncaught_exception() in STL Port's own namespace _STL, and when #define OTL_UNCAUGHT_EXCEPTION_ON is enabled, the C++ compiler complains that the uncaught_exception() function is not defined in the _STL namespace. In order to fix the problem, the following new #define may be used: OTL_UNCAUGHT_EXCEPTION_OWN_NAMESPACE.

    Of course, the STL Port can be reconfigured and rebuilt in order to expose the uncaught_exception() in the _STL namespace, but sometimes it's not an option.

  • OTL 4.0.156 introduced a bug in its new support for BINARY_DOUBLE: when an actual BINARY_DOUBLE column gets SELECTed from a table, it causes a program's crash. The bug is fixed in this release.

New (in OTL 4.0.156):

  • A problem was reported that when OTL is used with the OCI 10g, and BINARY_DOUBLE, there is a roundup error in the 17th and 16th decimal singificant digits, for example when 1.6666666666666667E+000 gets inserted into a BINARY_DOUBLE column in a table via OTL, the resulting value that is stored in the table is 1.6666666666666701E+000. A similar thing happens with BINARY_FLOAT values. In order to bind <float> and <double> with Oracle NUMBERs, OTL used SQLT_FLT (with sizeof(float), and sizeof(double), respectively) as an external OCI datatype. The same SQLT_FLT was used to bind <float> and <double> with BINARY_FLOAT, and BINARY_DOUBLE. The OCI manual didn't specifiy any ramifications about doing that.

    It appears that better alternatives would be SQLT_BFLOAT and SQLT_BDOUBLE (OCI manual only mentioned that performance would be better, and nothing else). It also turned out that SQl_BFLOAT and SQLT_BDOUBLE work better / have better precision, even when bound with NUMBERs.

    As I understood the mechanism, when you bind a <double> as SQLT_BDOUBLE with, say, NUMBER or BINARY_DOUBLE, or with any other numeric type, a <double> value gets sent across the wire / SQL*Net as is, as opposed to a <double> value would be converted into some wire format by the OCI, if the <double> variable is bound as SQLT_FLT (sizof(double)),. In the latter case the conversion loses the 16th and the 17th decimal significant digits (aka roundup).

    The bug has been fixed in this release. When #define OTL_ORA10G or #define OTL_ORA10G_R2 is defined, <float> and <double> get bound as SQLT_BFLOAT and SQLT_BDOUBLE respectively, which provides better precision.

New (int OTL 4.0.155):

  • Under #define OTL_ORA_TIMESTAMP, OTL tracing didn't trace Oracle TIMESTAMP / DATE values. The bug is fixed in this release.

New (in OTL 4.0.154):

  • Oracle 10G R2 (10.2) introduced the following bug:

    When a 'alter session set NLS%' statement is first executed in parse only mode and then in normal mode, the setting changed does not get reflected. Bug # in metalink.oracle.com is 4904743. Oracle promised to fix the bug in Oracle 11g.

    OTL used PARSE ONLY to  implement otl_connect::syntax_check(), and PARSE ONLY + normal mode for direc_exec() functions. So, the bug broke the OTL logic for 'alter session set NLS%' commands. This release works around the bug.

  • This release introduces native support for TimesTen via the following new #defines: OTL_ODBC_TIMESTEN_WIN, OTL_ODBC_TIMESTEN_UNIX. Code examples for TimesTen have been updated to reflect the new feature.

New (in OTL 4.0.153):

  • OTL compiles clean with the latest G++ (GCC 4.2)

  • OTL compiles clean with Visual C++ 2005 (version 8.0) without disabling warning C4996: #pragma warning (disable:4996). Old C string functions have been replaced  with more secure VC++ 8.0 string functions (for example, strcpy_s(), strcat_s(), sprintf_s()) whenever possible, without breaking the existing design too much. Of course, the new string functions get enabled only when OTL is being compiled with VC++ 8.0.

  • Actual code examples have been reworked to compile clean with Visual C++ 8.0.

New  (in OTL 4.0.152):

  • A bug was reported that OTL 4.0.147 - OTl 4.0.151 broke inout bind variables' behavior. The actual problem was that when NULL gets written into an inout variable, the OTL stream's internal NULL indicator doesn't get set to non-NULL on the output in case if the variable receives a non-NULL value from the database. The bug was introduced  by an optimization tweak in OTL 4.0.147, and fixed in this release.

  • (Updated): There is an open source ODBC driver for Linux/Unix/Windows for accessing MS SQL 7.0 / 2000 / 2005 and Sybase 10.x / 11.x / 12.x / 15.x:. It's called FreeTDS. At this point time, the FreeTDS ODBC driver (version 0.63) is high enough quality to work with OTL. The following FreeTDS based sets of code examples have been added: MS SQL Server / FreeTDS ODBC, Sybase SQL Server / FreeTDS ODBC.

    FreeTDS ODBC supports the bulk interface, calls to stored procedures, etc. It doesn't support some features that are supported by the native MS SQL and Sybase ODBC drivers, but for a free ODBC driver, it's good enough performance-wise, and feature-wise. And it provides access to MS SQL from Linux / Unix. Sybase native ODBC driver is available for Windows and Linux. So, FreeTDS ODBC can be used for accessing Sybase from Solaris and AIX (or any other supported platform that FreeTDS supports). In non-Windows platforms, FreeTDS ODBC can be used with unixODBC, or iODBC.

  • (Updated):TimesTen code examples have been tested against TimesTen 7.0.

New (in OTL 4.0.151):

New (in OTL 4.0.150):

  • A problem was reported that OTL throws an "Invalid Handle" (OCI) exception when a PL/SQL block / stored procedure returns an uninitialized CLOB / BLOB locator, and when the CLOB / BLOB is being written to / read from via an otl_lob_stream. To address the problem, a new function has been added to the lob stream class: is_initialized().

  • This release introduces support for Oracle UTF8 via the following new #define: #define OTL_ORA_UTF8. See also examples for Oracle 9i, UTF8, and Oracle 10g, UTF8.

New (in OTL 4.0.149):

  • A memory leak was reported in otl_stream, which turned out to be a call to otl_stream::open() in a loop without a matching call to otl_stream::close().  In order to simplify debugging of problems like that, this release introduces the following two new OTL defined exceptions:

    • code 32030, otl_stream is already open

    • code 32031, otl_connect is already connected

  • DB2 zOS does not normally release row locks on a SELECT statement, even after all the rows were already fetched, and even the underlying cursor was closed. In order to release the row locks, the SELECT statement has to be "committed" with an explicit otl_connect::commit() call. The thing gets worse when on the DB2 zOS side, a timeout on "inactive DB2 threads that lock resources" is set, which results in a forced disconnect. DB2 CLI manual recommends to explicitly set the SQL statement's SQL_ATTR_CLOSE_BEHAVIOR attribute to SQL_CC_RELEASE (read locks are released), in which case the DB2 server attempts to release read locks. No guarantees, of course.

    This release sets the SQL statement's attribute to the recommended value in case if the SELECT statement's isolation level was either uncommitted read (UR), or cursor stability (CS, aka "read committed").

  • In this release, for DB2 CLI, all calls to SQLFreeStmt(hstmt,SQL_CLOSE) were replaced with SQLCloseCursor(hstmt). The difference between the two types of calls is that the latter will return a DB2 CLI error if the call is made on a closed cursor. SQLFreeStmt(hstmt,SQL_CLOSE) will return a "success". This was done in order to simplify debugging of potential problems with cursor management.

New (in OTL 4.0.148):

  • #define OTL_TRACE_ENABLE_STREAM_LABELS. When this #define is enabled, OTL trace records SQL statement labels instead of the bodies of the SQL statements. It is useful for reducing the size of the OTL trace.

  • #define OTL_NO_TMPL_MEMBER_FUNC_SUPPORT was introduced in OTL 4.0.127. The problem was reported that Visual C++ 7.0 (2002) does not support / has a bug in template member functions. The OTL header file will automatically enable the #define for Visual C++ 7.0 from this release and on. Visual C++ 7.1, and 8.0 do not have the same problem / bug.


New (in OTL 4.0.147):

  • Internal code cleanup. Also, otl_stream::flush() function has been optimized by 2-2.5%. Mileage may vary from one C++ compiler to another.

  • Following new #defines have been introduced: OTL_ORA7_TIMESTAMP_TO_STRING,OTL_ORA7_STRING_TO_TIMESTAMP.
    The #defines should be used when there is a need to use OCI7 and Oracle 9i/10g TIMESTAMPs in order to enhance legacy applications. See also example 473.

  • Examples for SQLite have been updated to match what's available in SQLite 3.3.x, and SQLite ODBC driver 0.71.

New (in OTL 4.0.146):

  • OTL/ODBC didn't compile with the Polyhedra ODBC header files. The bug has been fixed in this release.

  • Description of #define OTL_ODBC_POSTGRESQL as well as the PostgreSQL examples have been changed.

  • The F.A.Q. has more answers the following questions:

    • Why nested queries with bind variables do not work in MS SQL Server?

    • How do I connect to my database without creating an ODBC DSN?

New (in OTL 4.0.145):

  • Basic support for MS SQL 2005 VARCHAR(MAX) and VARBINARY(MAX) is introduced in this release. VARCHAR(MAX) and VARBINARY(MAX) data types are "replacements" for "old" TEXT and IMAGE. The new types are not quite backward compatible as far as MS SQL ODBC is concerned. Basically it works, only the OTL LOB stream mode doesn't work. I'd appreciate very much if somebody could  point me to an ODBC based code example that demonstrates how to use VARCHAR(MAX) / VARBINARY(MAX)  in piece-wise read/write modes.

  • The following code examples have been introduced to demonstrate more [new] features and code techniques:

  • This release enforces the minimum size of 2 characters in :var<char[xxx]> declarations. The reason is that char[1] is invalid because OTL char[xxx] variables are null terminated strings. #define OTL_ADD_NULL_TERMINATOR_TO_STRING_SIZE adds one character to the string length, which makes :var<char[1]> a valid declaration.

  • OTL 4.0.138 relaxed the requirement of presetting the LOB length before the first chunk of the LOB gets written to the LOB stream (otl_lob_stream), which changed the ODBC / DB2 CLI function call sequence. A bug was reported that when a LOB stream is used for writing the LOB value, and the stream gets destroyed before the end of the row, which LOB was written to, it causes the "invaid function call sequence" error. The actual error message is different in different database types,. The bug is fixed in this release. This problem affects only ODBC and DB2 CLI applications, and only if the LOB stream is destroyed before the end of the row. The following [long] piece of code demonstrates the problem:

    void insert()
    // insert rows into table
    {
     otl_long_string f2(6000); // define long string variable
     otl_stream o; // defined an otl_stream variable
     o.set_lob_stream_mode(true);
      // set the "lob stream mode" flag
     o.open(1,
      // buffer size has to be set to 1 for operations with LOBs
            "insert into test_tab "
            "values(:f1<int>,:f2<varchar_long>, "
            ":f3<varchar_long>) ",
                // SQL statement
            db // connect object
           );
     o.set_commit(0);
      // setting stream "auto-commit" to "off". It is required
      // when LOB stream mode is used.

     int i,j;
     otl_lob_stream *lob;
      // LOB stream for reading/writing unlimited number
      // of bytes regardless of the buffer size.
     otl_lob_stream *lob2;
      // LOB stream for reading/writing unlimited number
      // of bytes regardless of the buffer size.

     for(i=1;i<=20;++i){
      lob = new otl_lob_stream;
      lob2 = new otl_lob_stream;

      o<<i;
      o<<*lob; // Initialize otl_lob_stream by writing it
              // into otl_stream.
      o<<*lob2; // Initialize otl_lob_stream by writing it
              // into otl_stream.

      for(j=0;j<5000;++j)
       f2[j]='*';
      f2[5000]='?';
      f2.set_len(5001);

      // OTL < 4.0.138
      lob->set_len(5001+2123); // setting the total  size of
                              // the TEXT to be written.
        *lob<<f2; // writing first chunk of the TEXT into lob


      f2[2122]='?';
      f2.set_len(2123); // setting the size of the second chunk

      *lob<<f2; // writing the second chunk of the TEXT into lob
      lob->close(); // closing the otl_lob_stream

      delete lob;
       // here is a problem (in OTL 4.0.138 - 4.0.144),
       // OK in 4.0.145 (this release)
      // not the end of the row yet
      for(j=0;j<5000;++j)
       f2[j]='*';
      f2[5000]='?';
      f2.set_len(5001);

       // OTL < 4.0.138

      lob2->set_len(5001+2123); // setting the total  size of
                              // the TEXT to be written.
      *lob2<<f2; // writing first chunk of the TEXT into lob

      f2[2122]='?';
      f2.set_len(2123); // setting the size of the second chunk

      *lob2<<f2; // writing the second chunk of the TEXT into lob
      lob2->close(); // closing the otl_lob_stream
      // end of the row
          //delete lob; // deleting here is OK
      delete lob2;
     }


New (in OTL 4.0.144):

  • OTL (4.0.129 - 4.0.143) did not compile with the real OCI 8.0 header files. There was the following compilation error:

         C2065: 'OCI_PARSE_ONLY' : undeclared identifier

    The error is fixed in this release..

  • PostgreSQL 8.2 is out. This release has been successfully tested with PostgreSQL 8.2.

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