The PREPARE statement takes a character string containing a dynamic SQL statement and associates a name with the statement, for example:
move "INSERT INTO publishers " & "VALUES (?,?,?,?)" to stmtbuf EXEC SQL PREPARE stmt1 FROM :stmtbuf END-EXEC
Dynamic SQL statements can contain parameter markers - question marks (?) that act as a place holder for a value. In the example above, the values to be substituted for the question marks must be supplied when the statement is executed.
Once you have prepared a statement, you can use it in one of two ways: