A SELECT statement that returns only a single row can be prepared dynamically, followed by an EXECUTE with an INTO clause to retrieve the one-row result. SELECT statements that return multiple rows, however, are managed using dynamic cursors.

With dynamic cursors, results are put into a host variable list or a SQLDA that is specified on the FETCH statement (FETCH INTO and FETCH USING DESCRIPTOR). Since the number of SELECT list items is usually unknown, the SQLDA route is the most common. The DESCRIBE SELECT LIST statement sets up a SQLDA with the types of the SELECT list items. Space is then allocated for the values using the fill_sqlda or fill_s_sqlda functions, and the information is retrieved by the FETCH USING DESCRIPTOR statement.

The typical scenario is as follows:

EXEC SQL BEGIN DECLARE SECTION;
char comm[200];
EXEC SQL END DECLARE SECTION;
int actual_size;
SQLDA * sqlda;
...
sprintf( comm, "SELECT * FROM %s", table_name );
EXEC SQL PREPARE S1 FROM :comm;
/* Initial guess of 10 columns in result. 
   If it is wrong, it is corrected right 
   after the first DESCRIBE by reallocating 
   sqlda and doing DESCRIBE again. */ 
sqlda = alloc_sqlda( 10 );
EXEC SQL DESCRIBE SELECT LIST FOR S1 
  INTO sqlda;
if( sqlda->sqld > sqlda->sqln )
{
  actual_size = sqlda->sqld;
  free_sqlda( sqlda );
  sqlda = alloc_sqlda( actual_size );
  EXEC SQL DESCRIBE SELECT LIST FOR S1
    INTO sqlda;
} 
fill_sqlda( sqlda );
EXEC SQL DECLARE C1 CURSOR FOR S1;
EXEC SQL OPEN C1;
EXEC SQL WHENEVER NOTFOUND {break};
for( ;; )
{
  EXEC SQL FETCH C1 USING DESCRIPTOR sqlda;
  /* do something with data */
}
EXEC SQL CLOSE C1;
EXEC SQL DROP STATEMENT S1;

The dynamic cursor example illustrates the use of cursors with a dynamic SELECT statement.

 See also