SQLSTATE and SQLCODE considerations

Using SQLSTATE causes performance overhead because of the representation of SQLSTATE as five characters. The overhead is most noticeable with short SQL statements and in error situations.

Mapping SQLSTATE values to SQLCODE values can result in ambiguous SQLCODE values:

• SQLCODE values will often not map to a unique SQLSTATE value. For example, see the many SQLCODE values mapped to SQLSTATE 42000 in SQLSTATE values.

• To deal with the problem of ambiguous SQLCODE values, Hewlett Packard Enterprise recommends retrieving the error message text or the SQLCODE value in addition to the SQLSTATE.

SQLSTATE values for some SQL/MX error and warning messages might be subject to change:

• In the future, NonStop SQL/MX might return different SQLSTATE values for error conditions than it does now.

• In the future, SQL/MX error handling might use a different error path, and therefore return a slightly different SQLCODE and implementation-defined SQLSTATE value for an error.