Allocate memory for a system-descriptor area
To allocate memory for a system-descriptor area, use the ALLOCATE DESCRIPTOR statement.
The ALLOCATE DESCRIPTOR statement performs the following
tasks:
- It assigns the specified descriptor name to identify this region of memory. This name is an identifier that must be provided in all the SQL statements listed in Table 1 to designate the system descriptor on which to take action.
- It allocates item descriptors. By default, it allocates 100 item descriptors in the system-descriptor area. You can change this default with the WITH MAX clause.
- It initializes the COUNT field in the system-descriptor area to the number of item descriptors allocated.
Important: ALLOCATE DESCRIPTOR does not allocate
memory for column data (DATA field). This memory is allocated by the
DESCRIBE statement on an as-needed basis. For more information, see
the next section.