Rules for Indicator Variables
Number Contained in Indicator Variable |
Specification to the Application |
A negative number (most commonly |
The associated input main variable should be treated as a null. Alternatively, it means the Teradata Database returned a null for the associated column. |
Zero |
The associated input main variable is non-null or that a non-null value was successfully returned with no exception conditions applied. |
A positive number |
Truncation has occurred when returning a character or byte string to the associated main variable. This value represents the original length of the string before truncation. |
An indicator variable is defined as a two byte integer (smallint). In PL/I, this is declared as:
DCL identifier FIXED BIN[ARY][(n)];
With this declaration, integer n must be positive, such that 1 <= n <= 15. If n is not specified, a default of 15 is used.