Oracle7 Server SQL Reference

VAR (Embedded SQL)

Purpose

To perform host variable equivalencing, or to assign a specific Oracle7 external datatype to an individual host variable, overriding the default datatype assignment.

Prerequisites

The host variable must be previously declared in the Declare Section of the embedded SQL program.

Syntax

host_variable Keywords and Parameters

is the host variable to be assigned an Oracle7 external datatype.

datatype

is an Oracle7 external datatype recognized by the Oracle Precompilers (not an Oracle7 internal datatype). The datatype may include a length, precision, or scale. This external datatype is assigned to the host_variable. For a list of external datatypes, see Programmer's Guide to the Oracle Precompilers.

Usage Notes

Host variable equivalencing is one kind of datatype equivalencing. You may want to use datatype equivalencing for one of the following purposes:

to automatically null-terminate a character host variable

to store program data as binary data in the database

to override default datatype conversion

For more information on using the VAR command to perform host variable equivalencing, see Programmer's Guide to the Oracle Precompilers. The Pro*C and Pro*Pascal Precompilers also support the embedded SQL TYPE command for user-defined type equivalencing.

Example

This example equivalences the host variable DEPT_NAME to the datatype STRING and the host variable BUFFER to the datatype RAW(2000):

EXEC SQL BEGIN DECLARE SECTION; 

	... 

	dept_name CHARACTER(15);  -- default datatype is CHAR 

	EXEC SQL VAR dept_name IS STRING; -- reset to STRING 

	... 

	buffer CHARACTER(200); -- default datatype is CHAR 

	EXEC SQL VAR buffer IS RAW(200); -- refer to RAW 

EXEC SQL END DECLARE SECTION;

VAR (Embedded SQL)

Purpose

Prerequisites

Syntax

Usage Notes

Related Topics