DECLARE variable-name [, ... ] data-type
[ { = | DEFAULT } initial-value ]

initial-value :
special-value
| string
| [ - ] number
| ( constant-expression )
| built-in-function ( constant-expression )
| NULL

special-value :
CURRENT { 
DATABASE
| DATE 
| PUBLISHER 
| TIME 
| TIMESTAMP
| USER 
| UTC TIMESTAMP }
| USER

Variables used in the body of a procedure, trigger, or batch can be declared using the DECLARE statement. The variable persists for the duration of the compound statement in which it is declared. If you specify initial-value, the variable is set to that value. If you do not specify an initial-value, the variable contains the NULL value until a different value is assigned by the SET statement.

The body of a Watcom SQL procedure or trigger is a compound statement, and variables must be declared with other declarations, such as a cursor declaration (DECLARE CURSOR), immediately following the BEGIN keyword. In a Transact-SQL procedure or trigger, there is no such restriction.

If you specify initial-value, the data type must match the type defined by data-type.

• SQL data types
• DECLARE CURSOR statement [ESQL] [SP]
• Special values

The following batch illustrates the use of the DECLARE statement and prints a message in the database server messages window:

BEGIN
  DECLARE varname CHAR(61);
  SET varname = 'Test name';
  MESSAGE varname;
END

This example declares the following variables:

• v1 as an INT with the initial setting of 5.
• v2 and v3 as CHAR(10), both with an initial value of abc.

BEGIN
   DECLARE v1 INT = 5;
   DECLARE v2, v3 CHAR(10) = 'abc';
			// ...
END