## EXECUTE IMMEDIATE EXECUTE IMMEDIATE — dynamically prepare and execute a statement ## Synopsis ``` EXECUTE IMMEDIATE string ``` ## Description `EXECUTE IMMEDIATE` immediately prepares and executes a dynamically specified SQL statement, without retrieving result rows. ## Parameters *`string`* A literal string or a host variable containing the SQL statement to be executed. ## Notes In typical usage, the *`string`* is a host variable reference to a string containing a dynamically-constructed SQL statement. The case of a literal string is not very useful; you might as well just write the SQL statement directly, without the extra typing of `EXECUTE IMMEDIATE`. If you do use a literal string, keep in mind that any double quotes you might wish to include in the SQL statement must be written as octal escapes (`\042`) not the usual C idiom `\"`. This is because the string is inside an `EXEC SQL` section, so the ECPG lexer parses it according to SQL rules not C rules. Any embedded backslashes will later be handled according to C rules; but `\"` causes an immediate syntax error because it is seen as ending the literal. ## Examples Here is an example that executes an `INSERT` statement using `EXECUTE IMMEDIATE` and a host variable named `command`: ``` sprintf(command, "INSERT INTO test (name, amount, letter) VALUES ('db: ''r1''', 1, 'f')"); EXEC SQL EXECUTE IMMEDIATE :command; ``` ## Compatibility `EXECUTE IMMEDIATE` is specified in the SQL standard.