Question : execute-immediate facility in sybase

Hi I am trying to use execute-immediate facility of sybase.
I am not much knowledge about execute-immediate.

Actually i am trying to find out how many rows are there in all user tables starting with name 'HIN'.

FOr this i made a unix script containging:

isql -Urwnzlrep -Pncs123jp -n -b -c <declare test cursor for select name from sysobjects where type ='U' and name like '%HIN%'

set nocount on
open test
declare @caid varchar(100)
declare @tost char(10)
declare @ctost char(10)
fetch test into @caid
exec('select '+ @tost + '=count(*) from '+@caid)
select @ctost=convert(char(10),@tost)
print "total number of rows in table %1! is %2!",@caid,@ctost
declare @res int
declare @rest char(5)
select @res=@@sqlstatus
while(@res = 0)
begin
select @rest=convert(char(5),@res)
--print @rest
fetch test into @caid
select @res=@@sqlstatus
if(@res = 0)
begin
print "total number of rows in table %1! is ",@caid
exec('select count(*) from '+@caid)
end
end
close test

!
               Now when i run this script, i gets error:
                              Msg 102, Level 15, State 1:
Server 'SYBDEV12', Line 1:
Incorrect syntax near 'select'.
total number of rows in table HIN_HOLDER_ID_NUM is
total number of rows in table SHD_SEC_HIN_DTLS is
           0

Can anyone tell me what is wrong syntex near 'select'.Also it will be much apriciated if you provide some features and weakness of "execute-immediate' facility of sybase.

Regards

pattha

Answer : execute-immediate facility in sybase

Hi, can you try re-writing the script as follows?

declare test cursor for select name from sysobjects where type ='U' and name like '%HIN%'
go

set nocount on
open test
declare @caid varchar(100)
declare @tost char(10)
declare @ctost char(10)
declare @statement varchar(255)
fetch test into @caid
while @@sqlstatus = 0
begin

      select @statement  = 'declare @tost numeric(25,0)' + char(13)
            + 'select @tost =count(*) from '+@caid + char(13)
            + 'print "total number of rows in table ' + @caid + ' is %1!",@tost' + char(13)
            --+ 'GO' + char(13)
                -- select @statement  
      exec(@statement)
      fetch test into @caid
end
go

close test
deallocate cursor test
go

Here we are using @caid in the parent connection to create the query. When we run exec() we also have to define any variable we use in the query itself.
To analyse this solution you might want to add to uncomment the line before the exec().
Hope this helps,
Cheers,
Rij.

P.S. I have rewitten the cursor handling a bit more ;-)