How databases store client information

Typically, databases that support storing client information do so by providing a register, a variable, or a column in a system table in which the information is stored. If an application attempts to store information and the database does not provide a mechanism for storing that information, the driver caches the information locally. Similarly, if an application returns client information and the database does not provide a mechanism for storing that information, the driver returns the locally cached value.

For example, let’s assume that the following code returns a pooled connection to a database and sets a client application name for that connection. In this example, the application sets the application name SALES157 using the driver property ApplicationName.

The application name SALES157 is stored locally by the database. When the connection to the database is closed, the client information on the connection is reset to an empty string.