Host language variables can be used in the SELECT statement of a DECLARE CURSOR, to substitute for expressions in the SELECT clause or in the search condition). When the search condition is specified within a single string variable, all the following clauses, such as the ORDER BY or UPDATE clause, can be included within the variable. These variables must be valid at the time of the OPEN statement of the cursor, because the SELECT is evaluated at that time; the variables do not need to have defined values at the point of the DECLARE CURSOR statement. Host language variables cannot be used to specify table, correlation, or column names.

Use the dynamic SQL syntax and specify a prepared statement name (see PREPARE) instead of a SELECT statement. The statement name must identify a SELECT statement that has been prepared previously. The statement name must not be the same as another prepared statement name that is associated with a currently open cursor.

A source file can have multiple cursors, but the same cursor cannot be declared twice. To declare several cursors using the same host language variable to represent cursor_name, it is only necessary to declare the cursor once, because DECLARE CURSOR is a compile-time statement. Multiple declarations of the same cursor_name, even if its actual value is changed between declarations, cause a preprocessor error.

For example, the following statements cause a preprocessor error:

Declare the cursor only once; the value assigned to the host language variable cursor_name is determined when the OPEN CURSOR statement is executed.

For example:

If a cursor is declared using a host language variable, all subsequent references to that cursor must use the same variable. At runtime, a dynamically specified cursor name, that is, a cursor declared using a variable, must be unique among all dynamically specified cursor names in an application. Any cursors referenced in a dynamic statement, for example a dynamic UPDATE or DELETE CURSOR statement, must be unique among all open cursors within the current transaction.

A cursor name declared in one source file cannot be referred to in another file, because the scope of a cursor declaration is the source file. If the cursor is re-declared in another file with the same associated query, it still does not identify the same cursor, not even at runtime. For example, if a cursor c1 is declared in source file, file1, all references to c1 must be made within file1. Failure to follow this rule results in runtime errors.

For example, if you declare cursor c1 in an include file, open it in one file and fetch from it in another file, at runtime the DBMS Server returns an error indicating that the cursor c1 is not open on the fetch.

This rule applies equally to dynamically specified cursor names. If a dynamic UPDATE or DELETE CURSOR statement is executed, the cursor referenced in the statement must be declared in the same file in which the UPDATE or DELETE statement appears.

The embedded SQL preprocessor does not generate any code for the DECLARE CURSOR statement. In languages that do not allow empty control blocks, (for example, COBOL, which does not allow empty IF blocks), the DECLARE CURSOR statement must not be the only statement in the block.