HP 3000 Manuals

HP ALLBASE/4GL Developer Reference Manual Vol. 1

Record Layout Details Screen 

This screen allows you to name the fields in a record layout and define
their position in the record layout.  The screen also allows you to
define the key fields in a record layout.

Screen Image 


            

Field Descriptions 

Record   Enter the name of a record that you have defined on the record
layout header screen.

Secured   Display-only field indicating the status of the secured field
on the record layout header screen.

Field Number   For new fields, HP ALLBASE/4GL supplies this number
automatically.  Otherwise, enter the number of an existing field.

Action   Enter the code of the action to be performed on the specified
field number.

It can be one of the following:

  Code   Action 

   A     Add new field.

   C     Change field name or key number.

   I     Insert a field before this field.

   D     Delete field from layout.

Field Spec.  Name   Enter the name of a dictionary field specification.
This field must already be defined.

If you intend to use the record layout to define the columns of an HP
ALLBASE/SQL table, the field specification cannot allow multiple
occurrences of the field.  HP ALLBASE/4GL uses the field specification
names to define the column names for the HP ALLBASE/SQL table.  HP
ALLBASE/SQL converts all column names to uppercase, and does not allow
extended (eight-bit) characters in column names.

Key Number   This field is optional.

If the field is to be used as a key for reading the file, you must
specify the key number.  Key number 1 is the primary key.

If you use the record layout to define an HP ALLBASE/SQL table, HP
ALLBASE/4GL uses the key fields to define the SQL indexes for the table.
The index created for key field number 1 is created as a clustering
index.

The KSAM data file creation facility uses the key numbers on the default
record layout to build the file index when it is building a file from the
HP ALLBASE/4GL specifications.  The key number defines the number of the
file index that you must use to locate a record on the file using this
key.  If you intend to use the record layout as the KSAM data file's
default record layout, you must define at least one field on the record
layout as a key field.

Key numbers are also used to define the number of the file index used to
locate a record on an HP TurboIMAGE/iX data set.  For detail data sets,
these keys are called search items.  The keys defined for a record that
is used to define an existing physical HP TurboIMAGE/iX data set should
match the search items already existing in the data set.  Refer to
Additional Information for some restrictions placed on record keys for HP
TurboIMAGE/iX data sets.

Duplicate Keys   Enter Y if duplicate key values are permitted.  Enter N
if duplicate key values are not permitted (that is, only unique key
values are permitted).

Function Keys 

f1       Field Specs.    Cancels the current screen and displays the
        field specifications screen.

f2       Record Header  Cancels the current screen and displays the
        record layout header screen.

f3       File Defn.    Cancels the current screen and displays the
        file/SQL table definition screen.

f4       Generate Record  Generates the record layout.

Additional Information 

You must generate a record layout before the application can use it.

There are certain rules about record layout keys that you need to follow
within HP ALLBASE/4GL.

The KSAM file manager requires at least one key to a record so it can
maintain an index of the records in a data file.

The record layout for an HP ALLBASE/SQL table does not need to have any
fields defined as key fields.  If you do define a field on the record
layout as a key field, HP ALLBASE/4GL uses the field to create an index
for the table.  You cannot use a field specification with multiple
occurrences as a key.

Like HP ALLBASE/SQL, HP TurboIMAGE/iX data sets cannot use record layouts
with a key field specification with multiple occurrences.  There are
other rules for record layouts that are used in HP TurboIMAGE/iX data set
definitions:

   *   Record layouts for master data sets cannot contain keys that allow
       duplicate entries.

   *   Record layouts for automatic master data sets must contain one key
       field, and no other fields.

   *   Record layouts for manual master data sets must contain one key
       field, and may contain other non-key fields.

   *   Record layouts for detail data sets do not need to contain any key
       fields, but may contain up to 16 keys.

MPE/iX 5.0 Documentation