The SQLCA structure is supplied in the file sqlca.cpy, which by default is located in %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Micro Focus\Visual COBOL\cpylib (Windows) or $COBDIR/cpylib (UNIX). To include it in your program, use the following statement in the data division:
EXEC SQL INCLUDE SQLCA END-EXEC
If you do not include this statement, the COBOL Compiler automatically allocates an area, but it is not addressable from within your program. However, if you declare either of the data items SQLCODE or SQLSTATE separately, the COBOL Compiler generates code to copy the corresponding fields in the SQLCA to the user-defined fields after each EXEC SQL statement.
If you declare the data item MFSQLMESSAGETEXT, it is updated with a description of the exception condition whenever SQLCODE is non-zero. MFSQLMESSAGETEXT must be declared as a character data item, PIC X(n), where n can be any legal value. This is particularly useful as ODBC error messages often exceed the 70-byte SQLCA message field.