A single row query retrieves at most one row from the database. A single-row query SELECT statement has an INTO clause following the SELECT list and before the FROM clause. The INTO clause contains a list of host variables to receive the value for each SELECT list item. There must be the same number of host variables as there are SELECT list items. The host variables may be accompanied by indicator variables to indicate NULL results.

When the SELECT statement is executed, the database server retrieves the results and places them in the host variables. If the query results contain more than one row, the database server returns an error.

If the query results in no rows being selected, an error is returned indicating that no rows can be found (SQLCODE 100). Errors and warnings are returned in the SQLCA structure.

 Example

EXEC SQL BEGIN DECLARE SECTION;
long      id;
char      name[41];
char      sex;
char      birthdate[15];
a_sql_len ind_birthdate;
EXEC SQL END DECLARE SECTION;
...
int find_employee( long employee_id )
{
  id = employee_id;
  EXEC SQL SELECT GivenName ||
    ' ' || Surname, Sex, BirthDate
    INTO :name, :sex,
      :birthdate:ind_birthdate
    FROM Employees
    WHERE EmployeeID = :id;
  if( SQLCODE == SQLE_NOTFOUND ) 
  {
    return( 0 ); /* employee not found */
  } 
  else if( SQLCODE < 0 ) 
  {
    return( -1 ); /* error */
  } 
  else 
  {
    return( 1 ); /* found */
  }
}

 See also