Re: Can a PF have >1 record format?

[Jim Langston <jimlangston@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dan, 

No.  This has been a thorn in my side for a long time.  It was very
common in the S36 days to have a single file with two different file
formats, but with DDS you can only specify one of the formats.  I have
tried different things with join logicals, etc.. to no avail.

I finally found a solution that works.

I give no DDS to the file itself.  I then create 2 physical files with
the DDS for the file layouts for the 2 records.  These files never contain
any data.  In my program I open the real file as program defined.  I then
add ot my D-Specs an external data structure to those two files I made with
the DDS of the record layouts.  This here is a real world example of how this
looks and works.  Please note that although I am opening these up as Primary
files, they work just fine as full procedural.  This snippet was taken from
a one shot file update program I wrote:

FARFILE    UP   F  222        DISK                      
                                                        
D FileNM_DS     E DS                  ExtName(ARFileNM) 
D                                     Based(FileNM_DS@) 
D                                     Prefix(NM_)       
D FileNM_DS@      S               *                     
D                                                       
D FileCR_DS     E DS                  ExtName(ARFileCR) 
D                                     Based(FileCR_DS@) 
D                                     Prefix(CR_)       
D FileCR_DS@      S               *                     
                                                        
IARFile    NS                                           
I                                  1  222  ARBuffer     

C     *InzSR        BegSR                                  
C                                                          
C                   Eval      FileNM_DS@ = %Addr(ARBuffer) 
C                   Eval      FileCR_DS@ = %Addr(ARBuffer) 
C                                                          
C                   EndSr                                  

Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2001 08:51:00 -0500
From: D.BALE@handleman.com
Subject: Can a PF have >1 record format?

I asked this last week and got one response (thanks, Peter!) but would
appreciate a little more discourse on the topic.  The help for CPYF seems to
imply that a PHYSICAL file can have multiple record formats.  Am I missing
something?  I am already familiar with logical files having mulitple record
formats.

Can someone educate me how the RCDFMT parameter on the CPYF command is used on
a physical file?  Is this something that would be used for a non-described,
multi-format file (i.e., S/36-style Header & Detail formats combined into one
file)?

The help on my v3r2 says (and v4r4 softcopy is similar):

             Record format of logical file (RCDFMT) - Help

Specifies, for copying from a database file only, the name of the record
format that is copied.  If the from-file is not a logical or physical file,
*ONLY is the only value allowed.  A record format name is optional if the
logical file has only a single record format, but either a format name or
*ALL must be specified if the from-file has more than one record format.

The possible values are:

*ONLY
    The only record format in the from-file is copied.  When
    the from-file is a logical file, this value is allowed
    only if the file has a single record format.

*ALL
    All record formats in the logical from-file are used.

record-format-name
    Specify the name of the record format that is copied
    when the from-file is a logical or physical file.


Dan Bale
IT - AS/400
Handleman Company
248-362-4400  Ext. 4952
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