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 DESCRIBE Statement 

Use

Use the DESCRIBE statement to initialize the descriptor structure, and to determine the parameter and table column information needed for a dynamic SQL statement with descriptor.

Prerequisite

You have used the PREPARE statement to prepare the SQL statement for execution.

Syntax

EXEC SQL [<session_spec>] DESCRIBE <statement_name>
[INTO <descriptor_name> [<using_clause>]];

·        Specify <session_spec>, when you are working with multiple database sessions.

·        If the INTO clause is not specified, the precompiler uses the standard descriptor sqlda.

·        If you do not want to use the standard descriptor, you can declare the descriptor <descriptor_name> as a variable of the type sqldatype or struct sqlda (in SQL mode ORACLE, SQLDA only). However, the descriptor must always have the same type within a program.

In the SQL mode INTERNAL, the <using_clause> has no meaning in the DESCRIBE statement. It is used for DB2 compatibility.

 

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