DEFINE FIELD command
Summary
- Status
- New in Model 204 release 7.5:
- fields defined within field groups and the attributes that are available when FILEORG=X’100’ is used to define the file.
- CHUNK field attribute
- Privileges
- Any user
- Function
- Defines the names and attributes of the fields in a Model 204 file
Syntax
For a field
DEFINE [FIELD] name [(attribute [attribute]...)]
or
DEFINE [FIELD] name WITH [attribute [attribute]...]
For a field within a field group
DEFINE [FIELD] name [(attribute [attribute]...)] WITH FIELDGROUP [fieldgroupname | *]
or
DEFINE [FIELD] name WITH FIELDGROUP [fieldgroupname | *] [AND attribute [attribute]...]
Where:
| name or fieldgroupname | (1 to 255 characters) must begin with a letter and can contain any alphanumeric characters (including space) except:
?? ?$ ?& @ (or an alternative delete character) # (or an alternative flush character) ; name or fieldgroupname must not start with a reserved word or character. An embedded reserved word or character must be part of a string preceded and followed by a single quotation mark. |
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| attribute | is one of the field characteristics listed in the table below. Note that each attribute has a default. Therefore, when selected, the attribute need be specified only if it differs from the default. If no attributes are specified, the field is defined with all the defaults. See Field Design (File Management) for more information on field attributes.
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| WITH FIELDGROUP fieldgroupname | identifies the containing field group. When fieldgroupname is specified as an asterisk (*), it means that the field can be included in any field group as well as existing outside of any field group. |
Conflicting attributes, listed in the table below, cannot be specified together.
| This attribute... | Cannot be specified with the attribute(s)... |
|---|---|
| BINARY, BLOB, CLOB, or CODED | LENGTH |
| CHUNK | CONCATENATION-OF, COUNT-OCCURRENCES-OF, CREATE-TIME, CREATE-TIMEUTC, CREATE-USER, UPDATE-TIME, UPDATE-TIMEUTC, UPDATE-USER |
| CONCATENATION-OF | BINARY LARGE OBJECT, CHARACTER LARGE OBJECT, DATETIME, DEFAULT-VALUE, OCCURS > 1, REPEATABLE, STORE-DEFAULT, STORE-NULL, UPDATE AT END |
| COUNT-OCCURRENCES-OF | BINARY LARGE OBJECT, CHARACTER LARGE OBJECT, DATETIME, DBCS, DEFAULT-VALUE, INVISIBLE, OCCURS > 1, REPEATABLE, STORE-DEFAULT, STORE-NULL, UNIQUE, UPDATE AT END |
| CREATE-TIME | BINARY, BINARY LARGE OBJECT, CHARACTER LARGE OBJECT, DBCS, FLOAT, INVISIBLE, NUMERIC RANGE, OCCURS > 1, REPEATABLE, STORE-DEFAULT, STORE-NULL, STRING, UNIQUE, UPDATE AT END |
| CREATE-TIMEUTC | BINARY, BINARY LARGE OBJECT, CHARACTER LARGE OBJECT, FLOAT, INVISIBLE, NOT UNIQUE, NUMERIC RANGE, OCCURS > 1, REPEATABLE, STORE-DEFAULT, STORE-NULL, STRING, UPDATE AT END |
| CREATE-USER | BINARY, BINARY LARGE OBJECT, CHARACTER LARGE OBJECT, DATETIME, FLOAT, INVISIBLE, NUMERIC RANGE, OCCURS > 1, STORE-DEFAULT, STORE-NULL, UNIQUE, UPDATE AT END |
| DATETIME | BINARY, BINARY LARGE OBJECT, CHARACTER LARGE OBJECT, CODED, CONCATENATION-OF, CREATE-USER, KEY, OCCURS, STRING, UPDATE AT END, UPDATE-USER |
| DATETIME-GE, DATETIME-GT, DATETIME-LE, DATETIME-LT | CODED, CONCATENATION-OF, CREATE-USER, KEY, OCCURS, UPDATE AT END, UPDATE-USER |
| DEFAULT-VALUE | REPEATABLE |
| ESCAPE | SEPARATOR NONE |
| EXACTLY-ONE | CONCATENATION-OF, INVISIBLE, LITERAL, OCCURS, STORE-NULL, UNIQUE |
| FEW-VALUED | MANY-VALUED |
| FIELDGROUP | FRV, INVISIBLE, NUMERIC RANGE, OCCURS |
| FLOAT | BINARY, INVISIBLE, NUMERIC RANGE, and STRING |
| FLOAT-GE, FLOAT-GT, FLOAT-LE, FLOAT-LT | Other range attributes |
| FRV | NON-KEY |
| IMMED | NON-ORDERED |
| INVISIBLE | NON-KEY, NON-RANGE, and NON-ORDERED;
UPDATE IN PLACE or UPDATE AT END |
| LENGTH-EQ | Any attribute that is automatically maintained by the system; BINARY LARGE OBJECT, CHARACTER LARGE OBJECT, LENGTH-GE, LENGTH-LE |
| LENGTH-GE, LENGTH-LLE | Any attribute that is automatically maintained by the system; BINARY LARGE OBJECT, CHARACTER LARGE OBJECT, LENGTH-EQ |
| LIKE | Any attribute that is automatically maintained by the system; BINARY LARGE OBJECT, CHARACTER LARGE OBJECT |
| LRESERVE | NON-ORDERED |
| MANY-VALUED | FEW-VALUED |
| MINLOBE | OCCURS |
| NO-CONSTRAINTS | Any constraint attribute |
| NO-DEFAULT-VALUE | DEFAULT-VALUE |
| NON-CODED and NON-FRV | MANY-VALUED or FEW-VALUED |
| NON-KEY, NON-ORDERED, and NON-RANGE | DEFERRABLE or NON-DEFERRABLE |
| NRESERVE | NON-ORDERED |
| NUMERIC RANGE | OCCURS n (if n > 1) |
| OCCURS | INVISIBLE |
| ORDERED | FRV |
| ORDERED NUMERIC | NUMERIC RANGE |
| PAD character | LENGTH |
| SPLITPCT | NON-ORDERED |
| STORE-DEFAULT | CONCATENATION-OF, COUNT-OCCURRENCES-OF, CREATE-TIME, CREATE-USER, UPDATE-TIME, UPDATE-USER |
| STORE-NULL | BINARY LARGE OBJECT, CHARACTER LARGE OBJECT, CONCATENATION-OF, COUNT-OCCURRENCES-OF, CREATE-TIME, CREATE-USER, UPDATE-TIME, UPDATE-USER |
| UNIQUE | DEFERRABLE |
| UPDATE-TIME | BINARY, BINARY LARGE OBJECT, CHARACTER LARGE OBJECT, DBCS, FLOAT, INVISIBLE, NUMERIC RANGE, OCCURS > 1, STORE-DEFAULT, STORE-NULL, REPEATABLE, UNIQUE, UPDATE AT END, UPDATE-TIMEUTC |
| UPDATE-TIMEUTC | BINARY, BINARY LARGE OBJECT, CHARACTER LARGE OBJECT, DBCS, FLOAT, INVISIBLE, NUMERIC RANGE, OCCURS > 1, STORE-DEFAULT, STORE-NULL, REPEATABLE, UNIQUE, UPDATE AT END |
| UPDATE-USER | BINARY, BINARY LARGE OBJECT, CHARACTER LARGE OBJECT, DATETIME, FLOAT, INVISIBLE, NUMERIC RANGE, OCCURS > 1, STORE-DEFAULT, STORE-NULL, UNIQUE, UPDATE AT END |
Paired attributes, listed in the table below, must be specified together.
| This attribute... | Must be specified with the attribute(s)... |
|---|---|
| CHUNK | ORDERED NUMERIC and INVISIBLE |
| CONCATENATION-OF | AT-MOST-ONE or EXACTLY-ONE or OCCURS 1 |
| COUNT-OCCURRENCES-OF | AT-MOST-ONE or EXACTLY-ONE or OCCURS 1 |
| CREATE-TIME | AT-MOST-ONE |
| CREATE-TIMEUTC | AT-MOST-ONE |
| DEFAULT-VALUE | AT-MOST-ONE or EXACTLY-ONE |
| ESCAPE | CONCATENATION-OF |
| FEW-VALUED | FRV or CODED |
| FLOAT | LENGTH |
| MANY-VALUED | FRV or CODED |
| MINLOBE | BINARY LARGE OBJECT or CHARACTER LARGE OBJECT |
| OCCURS | CODED, BINARY, or LENGTH |
| PAD | LENGTH |
| SEPARATOR | CONCATENATION-OF |
| STORE-DEFAULT | DEFAULT-VALUE, AT-MOST-ONE, or EXACTLY-ONE |
| UNIQUE | ORDERED |
| UPDATE-TIME, UPDATE-TIMEUTC | AT-MOST-ONE |
| UNIQUE | ORDERED |
Syntax notes
Attributes must be separated by commas or by one or more blanks.
You can specify DEFINE FIELD only in file context.
Example
DEFINE FIELD CUSTID WITH KEY FRV RANGE DEFINE FIELD AGE WITH KEY RANGE OCCURS 1 LENGTH 3 DEFINE FIELD EMPLOYEE
Usage notes
The DEFINE FIELD command describes the names and attributes of the fields in a Model 204 file. The file must be initialized, using the INITIALIZE command, before fields can be defined.
Note: Sort key fields for sorted files, hash key fields, and record security fields can be defined only with the INITIALIZE command, not with the DEFINE FIELD command.
Once fields have been defined, a user with the requisite privileges can perform the following commands on them:
You can define three types of floating point fields through the FLOAT and LENGTH attributes. The table below shows the characteristics of the three types.
| Type | Number of bytes | Maximum number of significant digits |
|---|---|---|
| Short precision | 4 | 6 |
| Long precision | 8 | 15 |
| Extended precision | 16 | 31 |
You supply a LENGTH attribute of 4, 8, or 16. The following example defines a long-precision floating-point field:
DEFINE FIELD SALARY WITH FLOAT LEN 8
Consider making a field a floating-point field if its value is always or often numerical. Very large numbers or numbers with many significant digits use much less space in floating-point form than they do in character form. Floating-point fields are valid only for files with the format of Release 8.0 or later or that have been converted by the TRANSFORM FLOAT command. Floating-point numbers in ORDERED NUMERIC trees are discussed as follows.
Defining a field group field
A field defined within a field group supports the same default attributes as fields defined outside or independent of a field group, except for REPEATABLE. A field defined within a field group defaults to EXACTLY-ONE. You can override the default with REPEATABLE. The frequency of occurrence of FieldName can be:
- EXACTLY-ONE, the default for a field defined within a DEFINE FIELDGROUP block
- REPEATABLE, the default for a field defined outside of a field group
- AT-MOST-ONE
ORDERED attribute
The ORDERED attribute is used to define fields for the Ordered Index feature. The ORDERED attribute can be followed by a tree type to specify the kind of ordering for the index. The tree type can be either CHARACTER (CHAR) or NUMERIC (NUM). If a tree type is not provided, a default tree type is used.
Syntax
The format for the DEFINE FIELD command with solely the ORDERED option and its related attributes is as follows:
DEFINE [FIELD] name WITH [ORDERED [CHARACTER | NUMERIC] [LRESERVE n] [NRESERVE n] [SPLITPCT n] [IMMED n]]
Where:
| LRESERVE | defines the percentage of space to leave free on the leaf page during deferred updates or a REORGANIZE command. The default is 15 percent. The value must be between 0 and 99. |
|---|---|
| NRESERVE | defines the percentage of space to leave free on the node page during deferred updates or a REORGANIZE command. The default is 15 percent. The value must be between 0 and 99. |
| SPLITPCT | defines the percentage of the node data to go to the left node when a split occurs during nondeferred User Language or IFAM requests. The default is 50 percent. The value must be between 1 and 100. |
| IMMED | defines the number of immediate pointers per segment in the Ordered Index. The default is 1. The value must be between 0 and 255. |
Usage notes
The LRESERVE, NRESERVE, SPLITPCT, and IMMED parameters represent approximate values. The actual movement of data during an update might not conform exactly to the value of the attribute in question.
The default ordering for a field is NON-ORDERED. Ordered Index attributes do not apply for a NON-ORDERED field.
If a field is defined as ORDERED without specifying the type of tree to create, the default depends on whether the field is STRING, BINARY, or FLOAT. If STRING, an ORDERED CHARACTER tree is defined. If FLOAT or BINARY, an ORDERED NUMERIC tree is defined.
The UNIQUE attribute specifies that there can be only one occurrence of a unique field in the file. Multiple occurrences are not allowed.
For a detailed discussion of field attributes, see Field Design (File Management).
OI CHUNK attribute
The ordered index CHUNK field attribute is available in Model 204 version 7.5. It improves the efficiency of range finds using Ordered Index (OI) processing.
The OI CHUNK attribute enables more efficient searching on Ordered Index numeric range (ORDERED NUMERIC) fields by specifying "OI chunks" of data. CHUNK is used to define a related field containing data from the original field (the "target" field) rounded down to the OI chunk size.
Syntax
The format for the DEFINE FIELD command with the CHUNK option and its related attributes is as follows.
Note that the "CHUNK" keyword can be abbreviated "CNK".
DEFINE FIELD chunkFieldName WITH INVISIBLE ORDERED NUMERIC {CHUNK|CNK} chunkSize FOR chunkTargetFieldName
Where:
| chunkFieldName | A standard Model 204 field name. |
|---|---|
| chunkSize | A positive integer that is an integral multiple or divisor of all OI CHUNK fields previously defined for chunkTargetFieldName.
The maximum OI chunk size is 2,147,483,647. OI chunk size also cannot be the same as the OI chunk size for any other CHUNK field defined for chunkTargetFieldName. If either OI chunk size rule is violated, the DEFINE command is rejected with an error message. |
| chunkTargetFieldName | A previously defined ORDERED NUMERIC VISIBLE field (it must be defined before any CHUNK fields that reference it). The DEFINE command is rejected with an error message if the CHUNK target is not ORDERED NUMERIC VISIBLE. |
Usage notes
- OI CHUNK fields must be ORDERED NUMERIC INVISIBLE.
- OI CHUNK fields can only be defined for ORDERED NUMERIC VISIBLE fields.
- Any given OI CHUNK target field can have at most 20 CHUNK fields defined for it.
- OI CHUNK target fields cannot be part of a field group.
- OI CHUNK fields are an AUTOMATIC field type. Therefore:
- The CHUNK type is mutually exclusive with all other AUTOMATIC field types (CONCATENATION-OF, COUNT-OCCURRENCES-OF, CREATE-TIME, CREATE-TIMEUTC, CREATE-USER, UPDATE-TIME, UPDATE-TIMEUTC, UPDATE-USER).
- Field values for OI CHUNK fields are set internally as instances of the CHUNK target field are added, deleted, and changed. The value of a CHUNK field is updated at the start of a transaction by Model 204 and cannot be set explicitly by a program.
- Once you have defined an OI CHUNK field, you cannot redefine it, rename it, or delete it.
File restrictions when using OI CHUNK fields
- CHUNK fields can only be defined in a FILEORG X'100' file.
- Once a file has CHUNK fields defined, it cannot be opened with a Model 204 version prior to 7.5.
- A CHUNK field cannot be defined in a non-empty file.
CHUNK target field value restrictions
A CHUNK target field can only store values between -999999999999999 and 999999999999999 (15 digit signed integer). If an attempt is made to store a value outside of that range, the request is cancelled with the following error:
CANCELLING REQUEST: M204.1402: Invalid value for chunk target: target-field-name = bad-value; values must be -999999999999999->999999999999999
DATETIME fields used as CHUNK targets
A DATETIME field that also has the ORD NUM (ORDERED NUMERIC) attribute can be used as a CHUNK target. Remember that independent of OI chunks, only the 15 leftmost digits of a DATETIME field's 20 digits are stored in the ORD NUM index. When computing the values of OI chunks for a DATETIME target, base the computation on 15 digits, not 20. For example:
DEFINE TIMESTAMP WITH DT ORD NUM DEFINE TIMESTAMP_YYYYMM WITH ORD NUM INV CHUNK 1000000000 FOR TIMESTAMP DEFINE TIMESTAMP_YYYYMMDD WITH ORD NUM INV CHUNK 10000000 FOR TIMESTAMP DEFINE TIMESTAMP_YYYYMMDDHH WITH ORD NUM INV CHUNK 100000 FOR TIMESTAMP DEFINE TIMESTAMP_YYYYMMDDHHMM WITH ORD NUM INV CHUNK 1000 FOR TIMESTAMP
This rule also applies to the automatic date field types (UPTM, UPTMU, CTRM, CRTMU).
Date/time stamp field
Specifying the date/time stamp field name
The system parameter DTSFN specifies the date/time stamp field name. This field name is the same for all files participating in DTS processing in a run. Though this is a system-level parameter, the feature is a file-level feature.
The date/time stamp field name you specify is not edited for validity.
The DTSFN value can be specified in CUST source code so you do not have to change all your jobs to specify the parameter. By default, Model 204 does not provide a date/time stamp field name.
Specifying a date/time stamp field definition
A date/time stamp field is defined as is any other Model 204 field but has the following field attribute restrictions:
-
A date/time field cannot be INVISIBLE or UNIQUE.
-
If the date/time stamp field is preallocated, OCCURS cannot be greater than 1.
Disregarding these restrictions causes the following error:
M204.2728: DATE TIME STAMP FIELD MAY NOT BE INVISIBLE, UNIQUE, NOR HAVE MULTIPLE OCCURRENCES
Rocket Software recommends using the ORDERED CHARACTER attribute. By default Model 204 generates a character string date/time stamp field value.
Defining the date/time stamp field value format
Your custom code formats the data entered into the field. The format for the default date/time stamp string is:
CCYYMMDDHHMMSSMMM
Note: The DTSFN field can have differing definitions in different Model 204 databases.