How SQL Statements Pass Values to a Table

An SQL statement passes values in these ways:

As strings. You can specify character, numeric, or hexadecimal strings:
- Character strings-These strings always must be enclosed in single quotation marks. The CA OPS/MVS product does not translate the text in the quotation marks to uppercase characters, nor does it translate any variable names that appear in the text. For example, a character string might look like this:
```
'This is a character string'
```
- Numeric strings-A numeric string is a sequence of integers. To make the string represent a negative value (for example, -717), use a minus sign as a prefix.
- Hexadecimal strings-You express a hexadecimal string as shown in the following example. The xxxx value represents hexadecimal digits.
```
X'xxxx'
```
Note: If a hexadecimal string has an odd number of hexadecimal digits, the digits are right adjusted to form the value. For example, X'123' is the same as X'0123'.
As the value NULL. SQL defines this value as a null data value. SQL does not consider a zero-length character string to be a null value.
As host variables. You can use dynamic variables or portions of variables in SQL statements you invoke from AOF rules or OPS/REXX programs. You also can use a host variable in any part of an SQL statement where you can use a string value.
As a date, a time, a time stamp, or a packed decimal value. Specify these values as shown in the table that follows.