environment-handles.md

title	description	author	ms.author	ms.date	ms.service	ms.subservice	ms.topic	helpviewer_keywords
Environment Handles	Environment Handles	David-Engel	davidengel	01/19/2017	sql	connectivity	conceptual	environment handles [ODBC] handles [ODBC], environment

Environment Handles

An environment is a global context in which to access data; associated with an environment is any information that is global in nature, such as:

• The environment's state

• The current environment-level diagnostics

• The handles of connections currently allocated on the environment

• The current settings of each environment attribute

Within a piece of code that implements ODBC (the Driver Manager or a driver), an environment handle identifies a structure to contain this information.

Environment handles are not frequently used in ODBC applications. They are always used in calls to SQLDataSources and SQLDrivers and sometimes used in calls to SQLAllocHandle, SQLEndTran, SQLFreeHandle, SQLGetDiagField, and SQLGetDiagRec.

Each piece of code that implements ODBC (the Driver Manager or a driver) contains one or more environment handles. For example, the Driver Manager maintains a separate environment handle for each application that is connected to it. Environment handles are allocated with SQLAllocHandle and freed with SQLFreeHandle.