GetName Method

Applies To

Description

This method returns the object's name.

Usage

const char *GetName(void) const

Remarks

Various objects can be referred to, in one context or another, by name.

· The name of a database object is the database name used for connecting to an Oracle database.

· The name of a field is the field name in the SQL query that created the dynaset to which the field is attached.

· The parameter name is the name that is used (with the ":name" syntax) in SQL statements; it is specified when the parameter is created by way of OParameterCollection::Add.

· The session name is either an internally generated string (for a default session) or the name specified by the user when the session is created.

GetName returns a pointer to a null-terminated string containing the name.

The actual memory that the pointer points to is managed by the object. It should not be freed by the caller; it will be freed when the object is destroyed or closed.

Return Value

A pointer to a string if successful; NULL if not.

Example

An example of the uses and pitfalls of GetName:

// we have connection information from a caller:

// dname - database name

// connect - username/password

ODatabase odb;

odb.Open(dname, connect);

if (!odb.IsOpen())

return; // the user gave us a bad connect

// odb.GetName will equal dname

// we also have an SQL statement called sqlstmt

// open a dynaset with it

ODynaset dyn(odb, sqlstmt);

if (!dyn.IsOpen())

return; // user gave us a bad SQL statement

// What is the name of the first field in the dynaset?

OField f1 = dyn.GetField(0);

const char *fieldname = f1.GetName();

// that works fine

// what if we skipped the declaration of f1?

const char *fname2 = dyn.GetField(0).GetName();

/*

What object is GetName run on? The temporary OField object returned by dyn.GetField(0). It will successfully return a name with GetName() and then go out of scope. So GetName() will return a non-NULL pointer that is pointing to freed memory. Watch out!

*/