Example 1: Declaring a host language variable within a BEGIN . . . END DECLARE block The following example shows portions of a PL/I program. The first part of the example declares the host language variable LNAME within the BEGIN DECLARE and END DECLARE statements. The semicolon is necessary as a terminator because the language is PL/I. The second part of the example shows a singleton SELECT statement that specifies a one-row result table. The statement assigns the value in the row to the previously declared host language variable LNAME. EXEC SQL BEGIN DECLARE SECTION; DECLARE LNAME char(20); EXEC SQL END DECLARE SECTION; . . . EXEC SQL SELECT FIRST_NAME INTO :LNAME FROM EMPLOYEES WHERE EMPLOYEE_ID = "00164";