Microsoft ODBC cannot create valid handle - c++

Question

I'm using Microsoft's ODBC driver to connect a C++/Linux application to a SQL Server database running remotely, and when I try to connect to the database, the call fails with SQL_INVALID_HANDLE. Reading through their documentation, I find this:
SQL_INVALID_HANDLE Function failed due to an invalid environment, connection, statement, or descriptor handle. This indicates a programming error. No additional information is available from SQLGetDiagRec or SQLGetDiagField. This code is returned only when the handle is a null pointer or is the wrong type, such as when a statement handle is passed for an argument that requires a connection handle.
Fair enough, but at no point in the creation of the handles and environment prior to the connect statement do I get any errors. Also, for the second argument, their documentation says I can pass in a null pointer if there is no desktop window (as is the case on this linux console application). Here is a MVCE, adapted from Microsoft's example program:
#include "sql.h"
#include "sqlext.h"
#include "msodbcsql.h"
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
int main(int, char**)
{
using std::cerr;
using std::endl;
SQLHENV henv;
SQLHDBC hdbc;
HWND dhandle = nullptr; // no desktop handle in linux
SQLHSTMT hstmt;
SQLRETURN retcode;
SQLCHAR OutConnStr[255];
SQLSMALLINT OutConnStrLen;
retcode = SQLAllocHandle(SQL_HANDLE_ENV, SQL_NULL_HANDLE, &henv);
if (!(retcode == SQL_SUCCESS || retcode == SQL_SUCCESS_WITH_INFO))
cerr << "SQLAllocHandle (environment) failed " << retcode << endl;
retcode = SQLSetEnvAttr(henv, SQL_ATTR_ODBC_VERSION, (SQLPOINTER*)SQL_OV_ODBC3, 0);
if (!(retcode == SQL_SUCCESS || retcode == SQL_SUCCESS_WITH_INFO))
cerr << "SQLSetEnvAttr failed " << retcode << endl;
retcode = SQLAllocHandle(SQL_HANDLE_DBC, henv, &hdbc);
if (!(retcode == SQL_SUCCESS || retcode == SQL_SUCCESS_WITH_INFO))
cerr << "SQLAllocHandle (connection) failed " << retcode << endl;
retcode = SQLSetConnectAttr(hdbc, SQL_LOGIN_TIMEOUT, (SQLPOINTER)5, 0);
if (!(retcode == SQL_SUCCESS || retcode == SQL_SUCCESS_WITH_INFO))
cerr << "SQLSetConnectAttr failed " << retcode << endl;
std::string dsn = "DRIVER={ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server};SERVER=*.*.*,1433;DATABASE=***;UID=***;PWD=***";
retcode = SQLDriverConnect(hdbc, dhandle, (SQLCHAR*)dsn.c_str(), dsn.length(), OutConnStr, 255, &OutConnStrLen, SQL_DRIVER_PROMPT);
if (!(retcode == SQL_SUCCESS || retcode == SQL_SUCCESS_WITH_INFO))
cerr << "SQLDriverConnect failed " << retcode << endl;
// cleanup code redacted for brevity
return 0;
}
The program outputs SQLDriverConnect failed -2, which is SQL_INVALID_HANDLE. I'm stumped. hdbc is clearly the right type, and examining it in the debugger shows me it is not null.
It may be worth noting that the exact same connection string works in a python program using pyodbc. It seems that the C++ program isn't even getting as far as looking at that string, though. It just doesn't like the handle I'm sending into the connect call.
Microsoft's documentation clearly says they provide no additional information. If anyone can provide any direction on how to diagnose/debug this, I'd appreciate it greatly.
This application uses gcc 4.9.1 on Centos 7.

Answer 1

After two weeks of digging, this turned out to be some kind of versioning problem.
Eventually, this program will be doing some BCP uploads via Microsoft's extensions in libmsodbcsql.so. It turns out that library also has implementations of many of the SQL* functions, which are the ones that are failing in this test program. When I change the order of the link so that libodbc.so is before the MSFT extensions library so that the loader finds those implementations first, the program works fine.
I'm curious why this is, and it probably points to something else I'm doing wrong that may bite me down the road. But for now, at least, I am able to get connected to the database and do basic queries and updates.
Thanks to those who helped.

Answer 2

In Unix does the handle not have to be a non-null value for dialogs to be displayed.

Answer 3

For any handle in SQL Server, it has to be allocated before used!
So the order is Environment, Connection and Statement.
Example:
SQLHENV hEnv = nullptr;
SQLHDBC hDbc = nullptr;
SQLHSTMT hStmt = NULL;
Allocations
SQLAllocHandle(SQL_HANDLE_ENV, SQL_NULL_HANDLE, &hEnv);
SQLAllocHandle(SQL_HANDLE_DBC, hEnv, &hDbc);
SQLAllocHandle(SQL_HANDLE_STMT, hDbc, &hStmt);
Below is sample code that may help you.
Basics fast,
Create table in your sql server database and insert some data
create table test (id int, name nvarchar(128));
Insert some data
insert into test (id,name) values (1, 'Awesome Name');
C++ Code to query items in the table
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <sql.h>
#include <sqlext.h>
int main(int argc, char **argv) {
SQLHENV hEnv = nullptr;
SQLHDBC hDbc = nullptr;
SQLHSTMT hStmt = NULL;
/**
* Allocate environment handle
*/
SQLRETURN allocReturn = SQLAllocHandle(SQL_HANDLE_ENV, SQL_NULL_HANDLE, &hEnv);
//Set environment
SQLRETURN setEnvReturn = SQLSetEnvAttr(hEnv, SQL_ATTR_ODBC_VERSION, (SQLPOINTER) SQL_OV_ODBC3, 0);
//Allocate connection handle
SQLAllocHandle(SQL_HANDLE_DBC, hEnv, &hDbc);
SQLCHAR *connection_string = (SQLCHAR *)
"DRIVER={ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server};SERVER=localhost,1433;DATABASE=database;UID=sa;PWD=password";
//Connect to database
SQLRETURN connReturn = SQLDriverConnect(hDbc, NULL, connection_string, SQL_NTS, NULL, 0, NULL,
SQL_DRIVER_COMPLETE);
//Allocate Statement Handle
SQLAllocHandle(SQL_HANDLE_STMT, hDbc, &hStmt);
//Create statement
SQLCHAR *query = (SQLCHAR *) "SELECT * FROM TEST;";
SQLRETURN sqlPrepareResponse = SQLPrepare(hStmt, query, SQL_NTS); //strlen(reinterpret_cast<const char *>(query))
//Bind columns
SQLCHAR personName[20];
SQLLEN personNameIndex;
SQLRETURN bindNameResponse = SQLBindCol(hStmt, 2, SQL_C_CHAR, personName, sizeof(personName),
&personNameIndex);
SQLINTEGER personId;
SQLLEN personIdIndex;
SQLRETURN personIdBindResponse = SQLBindCol(hStmt, 1, SQL_INTEGER, &personId, 0, &personIdIndex);
SQLRETURN execResponse = SQLExecute(hStmt);
SQLRETURN fetchResponse;
while ((fetchResponse = SQLFetch(hStmt)) != SQL_NO_DATA) {
std::cout << "ID: [" << personId << "] :" << personName << std::endl;
}
/* Free the statement handle. */
SQLFreeHandle(SQL_HANDLE_STMT, hStmt);
/* Disconnect from the database. */
SQLDisconnect(hDbc);
/* Free the connection handle. */
SQLFreeHandle(SQL_HANDLE_DBC, hDbc);
/* Free the environment handle. */
SQLFreeHandle(SQL_HANDLE_ENV, hEnv);
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Answer 4

I have exactly the same error using similar code (that was working in Ubuntu 18.04, but not with a update to 20.04)
cat /etc/odbcinst.ini
[ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server]
Description=Microsoft ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server
Driver=/opt/microsoft/msodbcsql17/lib64/libmsodbcsql-17.5.so.2.1
UsageCount=1
using this connection string
DRIVER=ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server;SERVER=127.0.0.1, 1433;UID=SA;PWD=password;DATABASE=my_database;
this is my library link order
if(UNIX)
find_program(LSB_RELEASE_EXEC lsb_release)
execute_process(COMMAND ${LSB_RELEASE_EXEC} -is OUTPUT_VARIABLE LSB_RELEASE_ID_SHORT OUTPUT_STRIP_TRAILING_WHITESPACE)
message(STATUS "Building in " ${LSB_RELEASE_ID_SHORT})
if("${LSB_RELEASE_ID_SHORT}" STREQUAL "Ubuntu")
message(STATUS "Linking with SQL-Server library")
set(lib_dep ${lib_dep} msodbcsql-17)
endif()
set(lib_dep ${lib_dep} pthread odbc dl)
endif()
As noted in the solution above, changing the link order fixed the problem
set(lib_dep ${lib_dep} pthread odbc dl msodbcsql-17)