GET DESCRIPTOR

>>-GET DESCRIPTOR--+-descriptor_var-+--------------------------->
                   '-'descriptor '--'
 
>--+-total_items_var-- =--COUNT----------------------------------+-><
   |                          .-,------------------------------. |
   |                          V                                | |
   '-VALUE--+-item_num_var-+----| Described Item Information |-+-'
            '-item_num-----'
 
Described Item Information:
 
|--field_var-- =--+-+-TYPE------+-----------------------+-------|
                  | +-LENGTH----+                       |
                  | +-PRECISION-+                       |
                  | +-SCALE-----+                       |
                  | +-NULLABLE--+                       |
                  | +-INDICATOR-+                       |
                  | +-NAME------+                       |
                  | +-DATA------+                       |
                  | +-IDATA-----+                       |
                  | +-ITYPE-----+                       |
                  | '-ILENGTH---'                       |
                  |  (1)    (2)                         |
                  '---------------+-EXTYPEID----------+-'
                                  +-EXTYPENAME--------+
                                  +-EXTYPEOWNERNAME---+
                                  +-EXTYPELENGTH------+
                                  +-EXTYPEOWNERLENGTH-+
                                  +-SOURCEID----------+
                                  '-SOURCETYPE--------'

Notes:

Informix extension
Dynamic Server only

Element	Description	Restrictions	Syntax
descriptor	Quoted string that identifies a system-descriptor area (SDA)	System-descriptor area must already have been allocated	Quoted String
descriptor_var	Variable that stores descriptor value	Same restrictions as descriptor	Language specific
field_var	Host variable to receive the contents of a field from an SDA	Must be of type that can receive value of a specified SDA field	Language specific
item_num	Unsigned ordinal number of an item described in the SDA	0 ≤ item_num ≤ (number of item descriptors in the SDA)	Literal Number
item_num_ var	Host variable storing item_num	Must be an integer data type	Language specific
total_items_var	Host variable storing the number of items described in the SDA	Must be an integer data type	Language specific

Use the GET DESCRIPTOR statement to accomplish any of the following tasks:

Determine how many items are described in a system-descriptor area.
Determine the characteristics of each column or expression that is described in the system-descriptor area.
Copy a value from the system-descriptor area into a host variable after a FETCH statement.

With Dynamic Server, you can use GET DESCRIPTOR after you describe EXECUTE FUNCTION, INSERT, SELECT, or UPDATE statements with the DESCRIBE ... USING SQL DESCRIPTOR statement.

With Extended Parallel Server, you can use GET DESCRIPTOR after you describe EXECUTE PROCEDURE, INSERT, or SELECT statements with the DESCRIBE ... USING SQL DESCRIPTOR statement.

The host variables that you reference in the GET DESCRIPTOR statement must be declared in the BEGIN DECLARE SECTION of a program.

If an error occurs during the assignment of a value to any specified host variable, the contents of the host variable are undefined.

GET DESCRIPTOR

Syntax

Usage