title: 'Prepared Statements' sidebar_label: 'Prepared Statements' sidebar_position: 4

:::info Spice is built on Apache DataFusion (opens in a new tab) and uses the PostgreSQL dialect, even when querying datasources with different SQL dialects. :::

Positional Arguments

Prepared statements bind parameter values to a query when it runs. Each parameter is referenced by its position in the statement, as $1, $2, and so on, or as ?. Spice supports two ways to use them:

• Flight SQL parameter binding. An Arrow Flight SQL (opens in a new tab) client, such as ADBC, prepares a query that contains placeholders and sends the values with each execution. This needs no session setup.
• SQL PREPARE and EXECUTE. The statement is named with PREPARE and run later with EXECUTE. It is stored in a Flight SQL session, so it is only available to later requests in the same session.

Flight SQL Parameter Binding

Pass the parameter values with the query:

import adbc_driver_flightsql.dbapi

with adbc_driver_flightsql.dbapi.connect("grpc://localhost:50051") as conn:
    with conn.cursor() as cur:
        cur.execute("SELECT * FROM example WHERE a > ? AND b > ?", (20, 23.3))
        result = cur.fetchall()
        print(result)

import adbc_driver_flightsql.dbapi

with adbc_driver_flightsql.dbapi.connect("grpc://localhost:50051") as conn:
    with conn.cursor() as cur:
        cur.execute("SELECT * FROM example WHERE a > ? AND b > ?", (20, 23.3))
        result = cur.fetchall()
        print(result)

SQL PREPARE and EXECUTE

To create a prepared statement named greater_than with two parameters:

PREPARE greater_than(INT, DOUBLE) AS SELECT * FROM example WHERE a > $1 AND b > $2;

PREPARE greater_than(INT, DOUBLE) AS SELECT * FROM example WHERE a > $1 AND b > $2;

To execute the prepared statement with integer and double arguments:

EXECUTE greater_than(20, 23.3);

EXECUTE greater_than(20, 23.3);

A prepared statement belongs to the session that created it. A Flight SQL client starts a session with a Flight Handshake call. The runtime returns a session ID in the response and in the x-session-id response header. The client then sends that ID in the x-session-id header on each later request. Sessions expire after one hour of inactivity.

A request that carries no session ID, including every HTTP /v1/sql (opens in a new tab) request, runs in a new context that does not keep the statement. Running PREPARE and EXECUTE as two separate requests without a session fails on the EXECUTE:

Prepared statement 'greater_than' does not exist

Prepared statement 'greater_than' does not exist

To run a parameterized query without managing a session, use Flight SQL parameter binding (opens in a new tab).

:::warning[Limitations]

• Positional arguments are not supported with the date keyword to construct a date value, like date $1. Specify the date value in the query instead: l_shipdate > date '1995-01-01'.

:::