====== Declarations - PL/HQL Reference ======
You can declare variables using DECLARE block or statement.
Note that you can mix both syntaxes in a single program. DECLARE blocks and statements can appear in any part of the program.
===== DECLARE Block =====
DECLARE block has the following syntax:
DECLARE
var datatype [NOT NULL] [:= | = | DEFAULT expression];
...
BEGIN
...
END;
HPL/SQL also allows you to define a constant:
var CONSTANT datatype := | DEFAULT expression
Example:
DECLARE
code CHAR(10);
status INT := 1;
count SMALLINT = 0;
limit INT DEFAULT 100;
max_limit CONSTANT INT := 1000;
BEGIN
...
END;
**Compatibility:** Declaration block syntax is similar to Oracle PL/SQL, PostgreSQL PL/pgSQL and Netezza NZPLSQL.
===== DECLARE Statement =====
DECLARE statement has the following syntax:
DECLARE var [, var2, ...] [AS] datatype [:= | = | DEFAULT expression] [, ...];
Example:
DECLARE code CHAR(10);
DECLARE status, status2 INT DEFAULT 1;
DECLARE count SMALLINT, limit INT DEFAULT 100;
**Compatibility:** Declaration statement syntax is similar to IBM DB2 SQL PL, Teradata, Microsoft SQL Server Transact-SQL and MySQL.