Specifying a System-Descriptor Area

The SQL DESCRIPTOR option specifies the name of a system-descriptor area.

The COUNT field in the system-descriptor area corresponds to the number of dynamic parameters in the prepared statement. The value of COUNT must be less than or equal to the number of item descriptors that were specified when the system-descriptor area was allocated with the ALLOCATE DESCRIPTOR statement. You can obtain the value of a field with the GET DESCRIPTOR statement and set the value with the SET DESCRIPTOR statement.

A system-descriptor area conforms to the X/Open standards.

The following ESQL/C example shows how to associate values from a system-descriptor area:

EXEC SQL allocate descriptor 'desc1';
...
EXEC SQL put selcurs using sql descriptor 'desc1';