solidDB supports external stored procedures written in the C programming language. External stored procedures enable you to expand the server functionality by writing a C program.

External stored procedures are registered with the CREATE PROCEDURE statement, see CREATE PROCEDURE.

External procedures are accessed by using the standard dynamic library interface as provided by the operating system (shared libraries in Linux and UNIX, DLLs in Windows). To enable the use of external stored procedures, you must link your application dynamically to solidDB by using Shared Memory Access (SMA) or Linked Library Access (LLA).

External procedures are called with the same CALL statement syntax as SQL stored procedures; the control of the thread is passed to the external library routine until it returns. Furthermore, the database interface of external procedures is similar to that of an ODBC application, except that the connection handle (hdbc) is passed to the external routine, and the external routine can immediately start using the connection handle without establishing the connection.

External procedures can be removed by using the DROP PROCEDURE statement, see DROP PROCEDURE.