The Call Level Interface (CLI or SQL/CLI) is an application programming interface (API)[1] and software standard to embed Structured Query Language (SQL) code in a host program[2] as defined in a joint standard by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).
[3] The Call Level Interface defines how a program should send SQL queries to the database management system (DBMS) and how the returned recordsets should be handled by the application in a consistent way.
Examples of languages that support Call Level Interface are ANSI C, C#, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), Java, Pascal, and Fortran.
[4] The work with the Call Level Interface began in a subcommittee of the US-based SQL Access Group (SAG)[5][6][7] In 1992, it was initially published and marketed as Microsoft's ODBC API.
In the fourth quarter of 1994, control over the standard was transferred to the X/Open Company, which significantly expanded and updated it.