Reporting Facility Commands › FILE Command

FILE Command

(Area 2A)

The FILE command defines the physical attributes of an input data file or table to the Reporting Facility program. An input file is a collection of data, stored in computer-readable format, that the Reporting Facility can access and manipulate. Files can reside on different physical devices and can require different access methods. INPUT can be used in place of FILE.

The types of files that the Reporting Facility currently supports are:

• CA Datacom/DB tables
• CA Dataquery DQF tables
• VSAM files
• Disk files (including sequential, fixed, and variable)
• Tape files (including fixed and variable)
• Card files
• IMS-DL/I database files
• User modules

Since each specific type of input file requires a special format of the FILE command, this guide discusses each type individually in the following pages.

Note the following:

• The first file or table defined to a Reporting Facility program is known as the primary file. The Reporting Facility automatically generates the commands necessary to access the primary file except for CA Datacom/DB tables or IMS-DL/I files. For these files, you must initialize the Communications Area before issuing the GET command.
• You can define any number of input files or tables in a single execution of the Reporting Facility. Code the secondary files in the same manner as the primary file. (You must code the commands necessary to access a secondary file.)
• The appropriate Format 1 DEFINE commands must follow each FILE command to define the individual fields. You need to define only those fields that are referenced in the Reporting Facility program.
• The system enforces certain restrictions on the type of input files being referenced. This manual documents these restrictions with the individual FILE commands.