Reporting Facility Commands › GET Command

GET Command

(Area 3)

The GET command allows you to determine the order in which files are processed. The GET command causes entry to a module that only accesses and transfers data from an input file. You can code a user-module or the Reporting Facility can supply a module. Format the GET command as follows:

►►─┬──────────┬─ GET ─ filename ─┬──────────────────────┬─────────────────────►◄
   └─ label: ─┘                  └─ logical expression ─┘

label:

Specifies an optional identifying label that allows a GOTO branch to be made to this statement.

filename

Specifies the name of the file to be accessed. This is the same name that appears on the FILE command for the table to be accessed.

logical expression

Optionally enables you to specify constraints on the acceptance of records from the file. Such a logical expression not only can contain references to field names contained within the records for that specific file, but can specify non-key fields and those fields identified as key fields in the KEY= clause of the FILE command. Logical expressions cannot appear on GET commands issued for access to a VSAM file, a DL/I file, a CA Datacom/DB table, or a user-module.

Note the following:

• The first file defined in a Reporting Facility program is known as the primary file; all others are known as secondary files. The Reporting Facility handles the primary file automatically by default except in the case of CA Datacom/DB tables or IMS-DL/I files. If the system encounters a GET command specifying a primary file, it deletes the automatic file handling statements. You are responsible for handling the file access statements necessary for the primary file.
• GET commands present the next sequential record in the file, or (if a user-module is specified) call the user-module. In any case, the execution of a GET command controls four distinct settings of the return code. The system automatically sets up the return code when the file is defined using the FILE command with the same name as the file name. The four settings are:

  F

  You have not yet issued a GET command against this file.

  Y

  The requested record from the file is in the I/O area.

  N

  A NO-RECORD-FOUND condition exists. Contents of the I/O area are unpredictable.

  E

  END-OF-FILE has been reached on the specified file. Contents of the I/O area are unpredictable.