HP 3000 Manuals

SORT-MERGE/XL Programmer's Guide

Structure of the Core Routines 

A simple sorting or merging operation can be performed using only three
intrinsics and a subset of their parameters.

 *  HPSORTINIT begins the sorting process and HPMERGEINIT begins the
    merging process.  Parameters define what will be passed to the
    utility.  All HPSORTINIT and HPMERGEINIT parameters are optional.

    This core routine uses parameters to define the input and output
    files, output format, record length, keys, and a variable to return
    error information.

 *  HPSORTEND and HPMERGEEND close the workspace, ending their processes.

 *  HPSORTERRORMESS returns the error message associated with the
    error number returned in the status parameter of HPSORTINIT.
    HPMERGEERRORMESS returns the error message associated with the error
    number returned in the status parameter of HPMERGEINIT.

Intrinsic parameters are positional.  If a parameter is not specified in
an intrinsic call, its position must be maintained by a comma.


NOTE  You must initialize and end a sort or a merge within the same
      procedure.  That is, HPSORTEND must be called from the same
      procedure that called HPSORTINIT, and HPMERGEEND must be called
      from the same procedure that called HPMERGEINIT.

      You may run only one sorting or merging operation at a time.  You
      can not nest them.


Figure 2-1 shows the structure of the core sorting or merging routine.


          Figure 2-1.  Core Routine 

MPE/iX 5.0 Documentation