Informix 7.2 and system deswcriptor areas

I am working with Informix 7.2 and writing a program that utilizes cursors and system descriptor areas. I am using the system descriptor area to keep the information that has been fetched using a dymanic select statement. One of the arguments passed to the program is the name of the table to query. The number of columns and types are not known at compile time. I have been able to allocate the descriptor, prepare/describe the statement, declare and open the cursor, and fetch the information. I get an accurate count of the number/type of columns that are in the table(s). I can grab some of the column names from the system descriptor area, and I am having a problem actually getting the data. I read a little about using risnull() to check and see if the return is null, but I either get a blank string, or just garbage data. (i.e. "/usr/bin/ks" ) Does anyone have any suggestions ? Thanks, Rose Marie Long Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.