<type>char[]</type>
     or <type>VARCHAR[]</type>.  For more details about this
     representation, see <xref linkend="arrays-input"/>.  Note that
     this means that the array cannot be accessed naturally as an
     array in the host program (without further processing that parses
     the text representation).
    </para>
   </sect3>

   <sect3 id="ecpg-variables-nonprimitive-sql-composite">
    <title>Composite Types</title>

    <para>
     Composite types are not directly supported in ECPG, but an easy workaround is possible.
  The
     available workarounds are similar to the ones described for
     arrays above: Either access each attribute separately or use the
     external string representation.
    </para>

    <para>
     For the following examples, assume the following type and table:
<programlisting>
CREATE TYPE comp_t AS (intval integer, textval varchar(32));
CREATE TABLE t4 (compval comp_t);
INSERT INTO t4 VALUES ( (256, 'PostgreSQL') );
</programlisting>

     The most obvious solution is to access each attribute separately.
     The following program retrieves data from the example table by
     selecting each attribute of the type <type>comp_t</type>
     separately:
<programlisting>
EXEC SQL BEGIN DECLARE SECTION;
int intval;
varchar textval[33];
EXEC SQL END DECLARE SECTION;

/* Put each element of the composite type column in the SELECT list. */
EXEC SQL DECLARE cur1 CURSOR FOR SELECT (compval).intval, (compval).textval FROM t4;
EXEC SQL OPEN cur1;

EXEC SQL WHENEVER NOT FOUND DO BREAK;

while (1)
{
    /* Fetch each element of the composite type column into host variables. */
    EXEC SQL FETCH FROM cur1 INTO :intval, :textval;

    printf("intval=%d, textval=%s\n", intval, textval.arr);
}

EXEC SQL CLOSE cur1;
</programlisting>
    </para>

    <para>
     To enhance this example, the host variables to store values in
     the <command>FETCH</command> command can be gathered into one
     structure.  For more details about the host variable in the
     structure form, see <xref linkend="ecpg-variables-struct"/>.
     To switch to the structure, the example can be modified as below.
     The two host variables, <varname>intval</varname>
     and <varname>textval</varname>, become members of
     the <structname>comp_t</structname> structure, and the structure
     is specified on the <command>FETCH</command> command.
<programlisting>
EXEC SQL BEGIN DECLARE SECTION;
typedef struct
{
    int intval;
    varchar textval[33];
} comp_t;

comp_t compval;
EXEC SQL END DECLARE SECTION;

/* Put each element of the composite type column in the SELECT list. */
EXEC SQL DECLARE cur1 CURSOR FOR SELECT (compval).intval, (compval).textval FROM t4;
EXEC SQL OPEN cur1;

EXEC SQL WHENEVER NOT FOUND DO BREAK;

while (1)
{
    /* Put all values in the SELECT list into one structure. */
    EXEC SQL FETCH FROM cur1 INTO :compval;

    printf("intval=%d, textval=%s\n", compval.intval, compval.textval.arr);
}

EXEC SQL CLOSE cur1;
</programlisting>

     Although a structure is used in the <command>FETCH</command>
     command, the attribute names in the <command>SELECT</command>
     clause are specified one by one.  This can be enhanced by using
     a <literal>*</literal> to ask for all attributes of the composite
     type value.
<programlisting>
...
EXEC SQL DECLARE cur1 CURSOR FOR SELECT (compval).* FROM t4;
EXEC SQL OPEN cur1;

EXEC SQL WHENEVER NOT FOUND DO BREAK;

while (1)
{
    /* Put all values in the SELECT list into one structure. */
    EXEC SQL FETCH FROM cur1 INTO :compval;

    printf("intval=%d, textval=%s\n", compval.intval, compval.textval.arr);
}
...
</programlisting>
     This way, composite types can be mapped into structures almost
     seamlessly, even though ECPG does not understand the composite
     type itself.
    </para>

    <para>
     Finally, it is also possible to store composite type values in
     their external string representation in host variables of
     type <type>char[]</type> or