How to executing direct SQL statements [Axapta, AX4.0, AX2009, AX2012]

Today I want to talk about executing SQL statements in X++ on both the current AX database and external databases. This is something probably every AX developer will have to do at some point.

You’ll want to do this for many reasons; to execute stored procedures, to improve performance, to get data from an external database, and so on.

I will provide samples for two classes:  - Connection (Execute SQL statement on current AX database)  - ODBCConnection (Execute SQL statement on external database)

I will not cover the ADO connection (CCADOConnection class), because it doesn’t work when you run it on server (or in batch), and I don’t like that. If you do, try to convince me.

Executing direct SQL on the current AX database

When you execute a SQL statement, there are two options:  - either you did a select and you expect a result to be returned  - or you did insert/update/delete and you don’t expect a result.

The first sample is for a SQL statement that returns a result:

public static server void main(Args _args)
{
     Connection      connection;
     Statement       statement;
     str             query;
     Resultset       resultSet;
     ;

     // create connection object
     connection = new Connection();

     // create statement
     statement = connection.createStatement();

     // Set the SQL statement
     query = 'select name from CustTable';

     // assert SQL statement execute permission
     new SqlStatementExecutePermission(query).assert();

     // when the query returns result,
     // loop all results for processing
     //BP Deviation documented
     resultSet = statement.executeQuery(query);

     while(resultSet.next())
     {
         // do something with the result
         info(resultSet.getString());
     }

     // limit the scope of the assert call
     CodeAccessPermission::revertAssert();
}

Note: this is a main method, put it in a class. Also note that it has to run on server.

Now if you do an update/delete/insert, you will want to do something like this:

public static server void main(Args _args)
{
     Connection      connection;
     Statement       statement;
     str             query;
     ;

     // create connection object
     connection = new Connection();

     // create statement
     statement = connection.createStatement();

     // Set the SQL statement
     query = "insert into CustTable (AccountNum, Name, RecId) values ('demo', 'demo', 2)";

     // assert SQL statement execute permission
     new SqlStatementExecutePermission(query).assert();

     //BP Deviation documented
     statement.executeUpdate(query);

     // limit the scope of the assert call
     CodeAccessPermission::revertAssert();
}

You can find more info about the executeQuery() and executeUpdate() methods on msdn: Statement Class

Executing direct SQL on an external database using ODBC

Again, we have to differentiate between queries that return a result and those that don’t.

The following code sample retrieves records from an external database and processes the result:

public static server void main(Args _args)
{
     Statement       statement;
     str             query;
     Resultset       resultSet;
     LoginProperty   loginProperty;
     OdbcConnection  odbcConnection;
     ;

     loginProperty = new LoginProperty();
     loginProperty.setDSN('YOURDSN');

     odbcConnection = new OdbcConnection(loginProperty);

     // Create new Statement instance
     statement =odbcConnection.CreateStatement();

     // Set the SQL statement
     query = 'select name from CustTable';

     // assert SQL statement execute permission
     new SqlStatementExecutePermission(query).assert();

     // when the query returns result,
     // loop all results for processing by handler
     //BP Deviation documented
     resultSet = statement.executeQuery(query);

     while(resultSet.next())
     {
         // do something with the result
         info(resultSet.getString());
     }

     // limit the scope of the assert call
     CodeAccessPermission::revertAssert();
}

As you can see, the code is pretty similar. The main difference is that we are using ODBC classes, including the LoginProperty class.

In this example, I use a DSN (Data Source Name) that I configured on the AOS server. The DSN contains a reference to the server and database you want to connect to, and also what user credentials should be used to connect to the database. This is a lot safer than storing them in AX.  If you don’t know how to create a DSN, there are plenty of tutorials on the web.

To update/delete/update, the code is more or less the same:

public static server void main(Args _args)
{
     Statement       statement;
     str             query;
     LoginProperty   loginProperty;
     OdbcConnection  odbcConnection;
     ;

     loginProperty = new LoginProperty();
     loginProperty.setDSN('YOURDSN');

     odbcConnection = new OdbcConnection(loginProperty);

     // Create new Statement instance
     statement =odbcConnection.CreateStatement();

     // Set the SQL statement
     query = "insert into CustTable (AccountNum, Name, RecId) values ('demo', 'demo', 2)";

     // assert SQL statement execute permission
     new SqlStatementExecutePermission(query).assert();

     // when the query returns result,
     // loop all results for processing by handler
     //BP Deviation documented
     statement.executeUpdate(query);

     // limit the scope of the assert call
     CodeAccessPermission::revertAssert();
}

If you feel that something is missing in these examples, just ask.