The DESCRIBE statement loads descriptive information about a prepared SQL statement, a form, or the table field of a form into the SQLDA structure. There are three versions of this statement, one for each type of object (statement, form, table field) that can be described.

Dynamic SQL uses the DESCRIBE statement to return information about the result columns of a SELECT statement. Describing a select tells the program the data types, lengths, and names of the columns retrieved by the select. If statements that are not SELECT statements are described, a 0 is returned in the sqld field, indicating that the statement was not a SELECT statement. For a complete discussion of how to use describe in a dynamic SQL application, see Preparing and Describing Select Statement (see page Prepare and Describe Select Statements).