4.2. Connecting to the Database Server

One connects to a database using the following statement:

EXEC SQL CONNECT TO target [AS connection-name] [USER user-name];

The target can be specified in the following ways:

• dbname[@hostname][:port]

• tcp:postgresql://hostname[:port][/dbname][?options]

• unix:postgresql://hostname[:port][/dbname][?options]

• character variable

• character string

• DEFAULT

There are also different ways to specify the user name:

• userid

• userid/password

• userid IDENTIFIED BY password

• userid USING password

The userid and password may be a constant text, a character variable, or a character string.

The connection-name is used to handle multiple connections in one program. It can be omitted if a program uses only one connection.