Returning variable result sets from procedures

The RESULT clause is optional in procedures. Omitting the result clause allows you to write procedures that return different result sets, with different numbers or types of columns, depending on how they are executed.

If you do not use the variable result sets feature, you should use a RESULT clause for performance reasons.

For example, the following procedure returns two columns if the input variable is Y, but only one column otherwise:

CREATE PROCEDURE Names( IN formal char(1) )
BEGIN
   IF formal = 'y' THEN
      SELECT Surname, GivenName
      FROM Employees
   ELSE
      SELECT GivenName
      FROM Employees
   END IF
END;

When you create a procedure without a RESULT clause and the procedure returns a variable result set, a DESCRIBE of the SELECT statement referencing the procedure may fail. To prevent the failure of the DESCRIBE, it is recommended that you include a WITH clause that describes the expected result set schema.

The use of variable result sets in procedures is subject to some limitations, depending on the interface used by the client application.

Embedded SQL To get the proper shape of result set, you must DESCRIBE the procedure call after the cursor for the result set is opened, but before any rows are returned.
For more information about the DESCRIBE statement, see DESCRIBE statement [Interactive SQL].
ODBC Variable result set procedures can be used by ODBC applications. The SQL Anywhere ODBC driver performs the proper description of the variable result sets.
Open Client applications Open Client applications can use variable result set procedures. SQL Anywhere performs the proper description of the variable result sets.

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