I am using following codes to get the accountname, and account from the Table Account; accountname, and account are varchar(30) and it can be null. The code has no problem when both accountname, and account are not null. It gives me an errror code of -209 when the account is null. Anyone has any idea of fixing it. the output looks like : error in fetch -209 Thanks, EXEC SQL BEGIN DECLARE SECTION; char query_string[256]; char name[30]; char account[30]; EXEC SQL END DECLARE SECTION; EXEC SQL CONNECT TO :dbname user :userid/:passwd; if(sqlca.sqlcode) { printf("error in connect\n"); return FALSE; } sprintf(query_string, "SELECT accountname, account FROM Account where AccountID = %d", customerId); EXEC SQL PREPARE sql_command FROM :query_string; EXEC SQL DECLARE c_cursor2 CURSOR FOR sql_command;/* DECLARE a cursor */ EXEC SQL OPEN c_cursor2; if(sqlca.sqlcode) { printf("error in cursor\n"); return FALSE; } EXEC SQL FETCH c_cursor2 INTO :name, :account; if(sqlca.sqlcode) { printf("error in fetch %d\n", sqlca.sqlcode); return FALSE; } ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 4: Don't 'kill -9' the postmaster