Indicator Variables
An indicator variable is a 2-byte integer variable. There are three ways to use in an application:
• In a statement that retrieves data from Ingres, you can use an indicator variable to determine if its associated host variable was assigned a null.
• In a statement that sets Ingres data, you can use an indicator variable to assign a null to the database column, form field, or table field column.
• In a statement that retrieves character data from Ingres, you can use the indicator variable as a check that the associated host variable was large enough to hold the full length of the returned character string.
The following declaration illustrates how to declare a null indicator variable:
C Indicator variable
## integer*2 ind