Working with a Single Database

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In single-database programs preprocessed without the gpre -m switch, SET DATABASE and CONNECT are optional. The -m switch suppresses automatic generation of transactions. Using SET DATABASE and CONNECT is strongly recommended, however, especially as a way to make program code as self-documenting as possible. If you omit these statements, take the following steps:

Insert a section declaration in the program code where global variables are defined. Use an empty section declaration if no host-language variables are used in the program. For example, the following declaration illustrates an empty section declaration:
```
EXEC SQL
BEGIN DECLARE SECTION;
EXEC SQL
END DECLARE SECTION;
```
Specify a database name on the gpre command line at precompile time. It is not necessary to specify a database if a program contains a CREATE DATABASE statement.

For more information about working with a single database in a SQL program, see Working with Databases.

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