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CA 2E Relations

A CA 2E relation expresses an association between two files or between a file and a field. Relations constitute the fundamental links in a data model. They enable you to make assertions about the meaning of the connections within your data.

CA 2E uses basic English verbs to describe relations as shown in these examples:

Customer Known by Customer code

Customer Has Customer name

Customer Refers to Salesperson

The Refers to relation indicates that a relationship exists between the two files (Customer-Salesperson); Known by and Has indicate the relationship between the file and the field (Customer-Customer code, or Customer-Customer name).

Several relations can be specified for a single file. CA 2E automatically resolves the relations of a file into the fields that are needed to implement that file. The fields that result from resolving a relation are called file entries.