SQLRPG - prepare, declare, no cursor

Hey all,

I know if done this before, but I'm drawing a blank.

I'm building a dynamic sql statement (variable 'where' clause, could
contain as few as one, as many as 6 fields to compare in my where
statement).

All i want is the record count  -  count(*), moved into a host
variable - so there will be no cursor - only a single fetch of the
record count.

which of the following steps do I need to run, in order, to do this?

prepare
declare
execute
open
fetch

I RTFM'd, but I'm not getting anywhere.

Thanks!