ODBC DELETE, INSERT, and UPDATE – PB Docs 2019

Internally, PowerBuilder processes DELETE, INSERT, and UPDATE the
same way. PowerBuilder inspects these statements for variable references
and replaces all variable references with a constant that conforms to the
backend database’s rules for that data type.

Example

Assume you enter the following statement:

In this example, emp_id_var is a PowerScript variable with the data
type of integer that has been defined within the scope of the script that
contains the DELETE statement.

Before the DELETE statement is executed, emp_id_var is assigned a
value (say 691) so when the DELETE statement executes, the database
receives the following command:

When is this substitution technique
used?

This variable substitution technique is used for all PowerScript
variable types. When you use embedded SQL, precede all PowerScript
variables with a colon ( : ).

See also

ODBC SELECT