DATA_AREA_INFO table function

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The DATA_AREA_INFO table function returns a row for the specified data area, including a data area in QTEMP or the *LDA, *PDA, or *GDA data areas.

The values returned are closely related to the values returned by the Retrieve Data Area (RTVDTAARA) CL command and the Retrieve Data Area (QWCRDTAA) API.

Authorization: The caller must have:

*EXECUTE authority to the library containing the data area, and
*USE authority to the data area.

For a DDM data area, the caller must be able to connect to the remote system.

To return information for a data area on a remote system, the caller must have:

*EXECUTE authority to the library containing the data area, and
*USE authority to the data area.

The schema is QSYS2.

data-area-name

A character or graphic string expression that identifies the data area.

Can contain the following special values:

*GDA: Group data area.
*LDA: Local data area.
*PDA: Program initialization parameter data area.

data-area-library

A character or graphic string expression that identifies the library containing the data area. If data-area-library is not specified, *LIBL is used. If data-area-name is one of the special values, data-area-library is ignored.

Can contain the following special values:

*CURLIB: The current library is used.
*LIBL: The library list is used.

ignore-errors

A character or graphic string expression that identifies what to do when an error is encountered.

NO: An error is returned. This is the default.
YES: A warning is returned.; A partial row is returned when an error is encountered. Columns other than the data area name (and the library name if explicitly specified as an input parameter) will be null.

The result of the function is a table containing one row with the format shown in the following table. All the columns are nullable.

Table 1. DATA_AREA_INFO table function
Column Name	Data Type	Description
DATA_AREA_LIBRARY	VARCHAR(10)	Library containing the data area. Contains the null value if this request is for GDA, LDA, or *PDA.
DATA_AREA_NAME	VARCHAR(10)	Name of the data area.
DATA_AREA_TYPE	VARCHAR(5)	The type of data area. CHAR A character data area. DEC A decimal data area. *LGL A logical data area.
LENGTH	INTEGER	Specifies the length of the data area. For a character data area, it is the maximum number of characters. For a decimal data area it is the total number of digits, including decimal positions. For a logical data area, it is always 1.
DECIMAL_POSITIONS	INTEGER	Specifies the number of digits to the right of the decimal point for a decimal data area. Contains the null value if not a decimal data area.
DATA_AREA_VALUE	VARCHAR(2000)	The value currently assigned to the data area. For a decimal data area, the SQL default decimal point is used. See Decimal point.
DATA_AREA_BINARY_VALUE	VARBINARY(2000)	The value currently assigned to the data area as binary data.

Example

Return the current value of the TESTDATA data area. Use the library list to locate the data area.

SELECT DATA_AREA_VALUE FROM TABLE(QSYS2.DATA_AREA_INFO(
                                            DATA_AREA_NAME => 'TESTDATA',
                                            DATA_AREA_LIBRARY => '*LIBL'));