$ServerFunction

Executes server-side functions.

$serverfunction (server specific syntax [«,parameters»])

server specific syntax	A character string or an expression that evaluates to a character string containing a server-specific syntax for execution on the server side.
parameters	Zero or more expressions to satisfy the usage of the server-specific syntax.

A value created by the server-specific syntax.

$ServerFunction executes the specific syntax (for a particular server) using the parameters.

The syntax is not parsed and checked, but rather passed through directly to the Server and, therefore, must be accepted and understood there.

$ServerFunction ("sysfun.left(?,3)",var1)

This will is accepted as is by Oracle.

$ServerFunction("sysfun.left(cast(? as VARCHAR(20),3)",var1)

This syntax is accepted by DB2.