Assignment

To assign a value to a variable or row/record field, use the assignment statement as follows:

identifier := expression;

If the expression’s result data type does not match the variable’s data type but the types are compatible, or the variable has a size/precision that is known (as for char(20)), the result value is implicitly cast by the NZPLSQL bytecode interpreter using the result type’s output-function and the variable’s type input-function. Note that this could potentially result in runtime errors generated by the type’s input functions.

Several examples follow:

user_id := 20;
tax := subtotal * 0.06;

For more information about casting rules and behaviors, see the IBM® Netezza® Database User’s Guide.