Extended Functions of ASF › Specifying Underlying Table Characteristics › Storing a Table in an Area

Storing a Table in an Area

A Table Goes in one Area

Space in an area is preallocated. The area should, therefore, be large enough to accommodate the maximum number of rows that will be stored for the table. If you know in advance that a data table will be very large, you can create an area for the table before you load any of the table rows.

When storing a table in an area, you have the following options available on the Extended Table Definition screen:

• Choosing whether or not to restructure the table at regeneration
• Choosing whether or not to delete the table when deleting the table definition

MAINTAIN ASF Utility

Tables can be loaded through MAINTAIN ASF, the table load utility. This utility:

• Provides a fast load capability for large tables with multiple indexes
• Supports definition-only table redefinition, which allows you to redefine the table without converting the data
• Supports definition-only table deletion, which allows you to delete the table definition without erasing the data

To achieve optimal use of MAINTAIN ASF, you should store only one table per area. This way, you can simply reinitialize the area when you want to delete table data. For more information on MAINTAIN ASF, see the chapter "MAINTAIN ASF".