SPL Procedures

SPL procedures are UDRs written in Stored Procedure Language (SPL) that do not return a value. To write and register an SPL routine, use the CREATE PROCEDURE statement. Embed appropriate SQL and SPL statements between the CREATE PROCEDURE and END PROCEDURE keywords. You can also follow the UDR definition with the DOCUMENT and WITH FILE IN options.

SPL routines are parsed, optimized (as far as possible), and stored in the system catalog tables in executable format. The body of an SPL routine is stored in the sysprocbody system catalog table. Other information about the routine is stored in other system catalog tables, including sysprocedures, sysprocplan, and sysprocauth.

If the Statement Block portion of the CREATE PROCEDURE statement is empty, no operation takes place when you call the procedure. You might use such a "dummy" procedure in the development stage when you intend to establish the existence of a procedure but have not yet coded it.

If you specify an optional clause after the parameter list, you must place a semicolon after the clause that immediately precedes the Statement Block.

The following example creates an SPL procedure:
CREATE PROCEDURE raise_prices ( per_cent INT )
   UPDATE stock SET unit_price =
      unit_price + (unit_price * (per_cent/100));
END PROCEDURE
   DOCUMENT "USAGE: EXECUTE PROCEDURE raise_prices( xxx )",
   "xxx = percentage from 1 - 100 "
   WITH LISTING IN '/tmp/warn_file';