Qualifier_Values

 

NAME=field-name

   Specifies the name of the field. The field-name cannot have any
   embedded spaces, must begin with an alphabetic character, and can
   be no longer than 31 characters.
 

POSITION:n

   Specifies the position of the field in the record.
 

VALUE:n

   Assigns a value to a constant field for use in a /KEY, /DATA,
   or /CONDITION statement. If you specify VALUE:n, do not specify
   /POSITION:n, because the field is a constant and not part of an
   input record.
 

SIZE:n

   Specifies the size of a field containing character or binary
   data. In the specification file, SIZE implies byte lengths. The
   data type determines what values are acceptable, as well as the
   units in which the size is specified:

   o  For character data, the size must not exceed 32,767
      (characters).

   o  For binary data, the size specified must be 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16
      (bytes).

      High-performance Sort/Merge: The high-performance Sort/Merge
      utility currently supports only 1, 2, 4, and 8-byte binary
      keys.

   o  For floating-point data, no size is specified.
 

DIGITS:n

   Specifies the size of a field containing decimal data. The size
   of a field containing decimal data is specified in digits. The
   size must not exceed 31 digits. Note that DIGITS:n is used only
   when describing a field containing decimal data.
 

data-type

   Specifies the data type of the field. You are not required to
   specify the data-type if it is character; Sort assumes character
   data type by default. The following data types are recognized by
   OpenVMS Sort/Merge:

      CHARACTER
      BINARY[,SIGNED]
      BINARY,UNSIGNED
      D_FLOATING
      DECIMAL,LEADING_SIGN,[OVERPUNCHED_SIGN,SIGNED]
      DECIMAL,LEADING_SIGN,SEPARATE_SIGN[,SIGNED]
      DECIMAL[,SIGNED,TRAILING_SIGN,OVERPUNCHED_SIGN]
      DECIMAL,[TRAILING_SIGN],SEPARATE_SIGN[,SIGNED]
      DECIMAL,UNSIGNED
      F_FLOATING
      G_FLOATING
      H_FLOATING
      PACKED_DECIMAL
      S_FLOATING, IEEE (Alpha and I64 systems only)
      T_FLOATING, IEEE (Alpha and I64 systems only)
      PACKED_DECIMAL
      ZONED