A Rexx interface to SQL databases

Version 2.5

10 October 2006

SQLDESCRIBE(statement name [,stem name])

Describes the expressions returned by a SELECT statement. The statement should first be prepared (with SQLPREPARE) and then described. Creates a compound variable for each column in the select list of the sql statement, with a stem equal to the statement name, followed by 'COLUMN' and with at least the following column attributes: NAME, TYPE, SIZE, SCALE, PRECISION, NULLABLE.

NAME - name of the column
TYPE - the datatype of the column represented as a database-specific string
SIZE - the size of the column as known to the database
SCALE - the overall size of the column
PRECISION - the column's precision; usually the number of decimal places
NULLABLE - 1 if the column allows NULL values, 0 otherwise

The full list of column attributes can be obtained by calling SQLVARIABLE with the DESCRIBECOLUMNS parameter. See the database-specific appendix for the meaning of other column attributes returned.

Arguments:

statement name: A name to identify the sql statement.
stem name: An optional name specifying the stem name of the Rexx variables created.

Returns:

success: a positive number, or zero, indicating the number of expressions in the select list of the SELECT statement
failure: a negative number

Example:

rc = sqlprepare(s2,"select ename, empno from emp")
rc = sqldescribe(s2,"AA")

results in the following Rexx variables being set:

AA.COLUMN.NAME.1 == "ENAME"
AA.COLUMN.NAME.2 == "EMPNO"
AA.COLUMN.TYPE.1 == "VARCHAR2"
AA.COLUMN.TYPE.2 == "NUMBER"
AA.COLUMN.SIZE.1 == "20"
AA.COLUMN.SIZE.2 == "6"
AA.COLUMN.PRECISION.1 == "20"
AA.COLUMN.PRECISION.2 == "40"
AA.COLUMN.SCALE.1 == "0"
AA.COLUMN.SCALE.2 == "0"
AA.COLUMN.NULLABLE.1 == "1"
AA.COLUMN.NULLABLE.2 == "0"

The values returned are implementation dependant.

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Last updated 10 October 2006