Embedded SQL statements and variable declarations can be continued over multiple lines. The line continuation rules are the same as those for BASIC statements. The ampersand (&) character followed immediately by a newline character indicates to the preprocessor that the current statement or declaration is to be continued. For example, the following select statement is continued over four lines:

Blank lines can be included between Embedded SQL statement lines and do not require a continuation indicator. If a line continuation character is missing from the end of a line containing an Embedded SQL statement to be continued, the preprocessor generates the error message:

The preprocessor does not enforce strict line continuation rules in declaration sections.