A system, computer usable medium and computer-based method for supporting named memory variables in an information retrieval system including a relational database. PUBLIC and PRIVATE named memory variables can be created, referenced, modified or deleted using SQL statements. The information retrieval system allocates a memory area as a named variable storage space for storing named memory variables. System catalogs may be used for storing information about PUBLIC, SECURE PUBLIC, PRIVATE, SECURE PRIVATE and pre-defined named memory variables. PUBLIC and PRIVATE named memory variables can be used for transferring information between SQL statements of one or more sessions or for retrieving system information from the relational database. Both PUBLIC and PRIVATE types can be defined as SECURE named memory variables requiring specific authorization privileges to read or write to the variable.