SQL DESCRIBE was( SQLRPG - prepare, declare, no cursor)

Hi Rick

It may seem a lot of work, it all depends on what you are trying to do.
I use SQL like this for powerful user driven search functions.
Constructing the WHERE clause can be tricky.
One limitation I found was to not push this technique too far.
I tried to construct a generic SQL so that it would work on any file.
I did not succeed because the SQL precompiler constructs data
structures based on the file it finds at compile time.
I tried to process the disk output of DSPJRN for any file that
was journalled.  The journal captures file data in one big field in the 
journal output and I tried to map that data into a DS based on 
the journaled file. The SQL looked fine and everything compiled but
it just did not work as the DSPJRN output is different for each file.
This may be possible using SQL APIs or the DESCRIBE statement but
both of these techniques are beyond my present skill.

Does anyone know how to use the DESCRIBE SQL statement.

Regards
Frank Kolmann


>date: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 17:34:41 -0400
>from: "rick baird" <rick.baird@xxxxxxxxx>
>subject: Re: SQLRPG - prepare, declare, no cursor
>
>That's what I ended up doing - prepare-declare cursor-open-fetch-close.
>
>I'm not ready to compile and test yet - many more subroutines to
>write, but i think this is the ticket.
>it does seem like an awful lot of work though, doesn't it?
>thanks for the help.