HP 3000 Manuals HP 3000 Manuals
Sections
A "section" is a subset of the input records which is defined by naming
one or more Record Types to be included or omitted from it. All records
included in a section will be sorted and formatted in the same manner,
according to Field Description specifications. The term "section" also
refers to the XSORT specifications used to define the section. These
consist of Record Type lines which identify the Record Types of the
section, followed immediately by Field Descriptions, showing how the
section is to be sorted and formatted on output. These sections of specs
(one or more) must all follow the Header, ALTSEQ, and S Option
specifications.
Multiple Record Types named for one section are tied together using the
OR operation ("O" in column 7 of Record Type specifications) whenever
several include sets or several omit sets are defined consecutively.
(See discussion of sets below.)
The specification sections are used in order of their appearance to
identify and categorize each input record. The first section to "accept"
an input record for processing is the one used to determine how it will
be sorted and formatted. If a section "rejects" the input record, XSORT
moves on to the next section to attempt identification. If no section
"accepts" the record, it will not be included in any sort processing.
Include-all is a section of specifications consisting of a single Record
Type line containing "I" in column 6 and blanks in columns 7 through 39,
followed by Field Description lines. This says that all remaining input
records are to be included in this section unconditionally. If used, it
must be the last line of the last section defined for the sort job.
Include-all is generally used as a "catch-all" mechanism to identify any
records not already accepted for processing by any of the preceding
specification sections.
Implied Include-all is a section of specifications consisting only of
Field Descriptions. When used, it must be the only specification section
defined for the job. It says that all input records are to be included
in the sort unconditionally.