sql and screen fields

I'm on a 7.2 system and doing the below in my rpgle and it will not
compile...
i'm so used to doing this on other systems... is it a release limitation?


select column1
into :s2_fld
from mylib.mfile

where s2_fld is simply a screen field defined in a display file.
The workstn f-spec exists so it should be able to see it and I am also
doing a exfmt to that screen record in my pgm.

what is the issue?

the compile issue is the typical sql precompile issue saying the s2_fld
cannot be used due to data type or whatever... but both are simple char
fields

tia

Jay