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    <td align="right" class="bar"> <!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="Section Title" -->
      <h1>OmniAccess API - Functions</h1>
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      <p><a href="#syntax">Syntax</a></p>
      <p><a href="#options">Options</a></p>
      <p><a href="#example">Example</a></p>
      <p class="line">&nbsp; </p>
      <p><a href="../OmniAccess%20API.htm">OmniAccess API</a></p>
      <p><a href="../Programming%20Basics.htm">Programming Basics</a></p>
      <p><a href="../Managing%20Data.htm">Managing Data</a></p>
      <p><a href="../Functions.htm">Functions</a></p>
      <p>&nbsp;</p>
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      <h2>OADESCRIBE</h2>
      <p>Returns data type information about the selection items specified in 
        the preceding oaselect through the selectitemlist parameter. </p>
      <p>oadescribe fills a structure (selectitemlist) that describes the data 
        types, lengths and boundaries of the select items as they are returned 
        by oaselect. You can read selectitemlist to determine whether the data 
        returned by oaselect is suited to your application. </p>
      <p>If a select item is not suited to your application, you can change its 
        entry to convert it and pass the changed selectitemlist to oabind to effect 
        the conversion. </p>
      <p>For example, if the selectitemlist shows that SHIP_DATE is a DATE column, 
        you could use oabind to convert it to character type before formatting 
        it and displaying it to a user.</p>
      <p>Before you use oabind to convert the SQL select items specified in a 
        call to oaselect, use oadescribe to return information about select items 
        for that cursor. This is useful for converting select items from their 
        defined or default data types and lengths to types and lengths more suited 
        to your application.</p>
      <p>Although you could determine the default types and lengths of the select 
        items you specified in oaselect&#8217;s column parameter from the type 
        of select item, or the column definition in the environment catalog, it 
        is easier to call oadescribe to do it for you. You can then call oabind 
        to pass the changed req_datatype and req_length fields of the selectitemlist 
        elements that correspond to select items you want to convert.</p>
      <p>If you pass the COLUMN option to oaselect, you must use oabind to establish 
        the fetch address for each select item before the first call to oafetch. 
        Calling oadescribe sets up the structures so that all you have to do is 
        assign a buffer address in the data element of the selectitemlist parameter 
        for each select item and call oabind.</p>
      <p class="line">&nbsp;</p>
      <h3><a name="syntax"></a>Syntax</h3>
      <P class="ex"> oadescribe (cursor, options, status, num_columns, select_list)</P>
      <P class="indent"><strong>cursor</strong> -- Is a 32-bit signed integer 
        passed by value. This is the value returned by a successful call to oaopencursor. 
        Cursor represents the retrieval environment to which data projection applies.</P>
      <P class="indent"><strong>options </strong>-- Is currently reserved and 
        must contain a semicolon or a null character passed by reference.</P>
      <P class="indent"><strong>status </strong>-- A reference to the <a href="../OmniAccess%20API.htm#status">Status 
        Structure</a> which indicates the success or failure of the oadescribe 
        routine. A zero status.error indicates the successful execution of oadescribe. 
        The status structure is passed by reference and contains fourteen 32-bit 
        signed integers, followed by a 36-character buffer. The information returned 
        to the status structure is discussed next:</P>
      <P class="indent"><strong>num_columns </strong>-- Contains the number of 
        selectitemlist structures to return for the specified cursor. The value 
        must be greater than or equal to the value of status word 11 in the preceding 
        call to oaselect. Num_columns is a 32-bit signed integer passed by value.</P>
      <P class="indent"><strong>selectitemlist </strong>-- A reference to the 
        <a href="../Managing%20Data.htm#oaselectlist">oaselect_list</a>.</P>
      <p>&nbsp;</p>
      <p class="line">&nbsp;</p>
      <h3><a name="options"></a>Options</h3>
      <p>&nbsp;</p>
      <p class="line">&nbsp;</p>
      <h3><a name="example"></a>Example</h3>
      <p>&nbsp;</p>
      <!-- InstanceEndEditable --><P align="right"><a href="#">Top</a> </P>
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