CA Culprit in the CA IDMS/DB Environment › PATH Parameter › Accessing Database Records › Specifying Path Identifiers

Specifying Path Identifiers

Path identifiers are unique codes that make it possible for CA Culprit to perform the following functions:

• Navigate an incomplete database path
• Navigate more than one database path

Each time CA Culprit navigates the database, it places the path ID value in the PATH-ID field in the input buffer; users can test the value of PATH-ID to determine which path CA Culprit was able to navigate.

Path identifiers can be of several types:

Primary Path

A primary path ID indicates that CA Culprit was able to access an occurrence of each record type specified on the PATH parameter; that is, it was able to navigate the path completely.

If more than one PATH parameter is specified, CA Culprit navigates the paths as follows:

• The first path that CA Culprit navigates is the path with the lowest sort-sequenced primary path id; for example, CA Culprit navigates PATHAA before PATHBB.
• The next path that CA Culprit navigates is the path that contains the most similar sequence of record types. In the example shown below, CA Culprit navigates PATHCC before PATHBB because PATHCC has more records in common with PATHAA:

  PATHAA DEPARTMENT EMPLOYEE COVERAGE
  PATHBB DEPARTMENT
  PATHCC DEPARTMENT EMPLOYEE EMPOSITION JOB
  

Alternate Path

An alternate path identifier indicates that CA Culprit is to return a partial string to the input buffer if it is not able to build a complete string. For example, because the PATH parameter shown below specifies path ID CC, CA Culprit can return a string to the input buffer that contains occurrences of the DEPARTMENT and EMPLOYEE records if an occurrence of the COVERAGE record does not exist or was not selected:

PATHAA DEPARTMENT EMPLOYEE COVERAGE (CC)

Null Path

A null path identifier is a special type of alternate path id; it indicates that an occurrence of the entry record was either not encountered or not selected for processing. A null path ID follows the entry record on the PATH parameter, as shown below:

PATH01 EMPLOYEE (02) EXPERTISE SKILL

Dummy Path

A dummy path identifier allows CA Culprit to access database records or logical records directly within the procedure code by using the DB-EXIT facility. The identifier for a dummy PATH parameter is two hyphens (--), as shown below:

PATH-- EMPLOYEE JOB DEPARTMENT

The above example indicates that the records specified on a dummy path do not have to participate in set relationships with one another because the user controls the record retrieval process.

Path Statistics

The following report shows the path statistics CA Culprit lists on the Run Time Messages report. The listing indicates how many times CA Culprit was able to navigate each path and how many occurrences of each database record CA Culprit accessed.

 mm/dd/yy          RUN TIME MESSAGES                  PAGE     1

   IDMS DATABASE EXTRACT STATISTICS
   STRINGS RETURNED FOR PATH AA -          34
   STRINGS RETURNED FOR PATH BB -           0
   STRINGS RETURNED FOR PATH CC -           0
   STRINGS RETURNED FOR PATH DD -           1
   STRINGS RETURNED FOR PATH EE -          29
   STRINGS RETURNED FOR PATH FF -           0
   STRINGS RETURNED FOR PATH GG -           0

   RECORD NAME       NUMBER READ
  DEPARTMENT                   4
  EMPLOYEE                    29
  EMPOSITION                  34
  OFFICE                      29

Note: CA Culprit navigated path AA 34 times, path DD 1 time, and path EE 29 times. In order to complete these paths, CA Culprit retrieved 4 DEPARTMENT record occurrences, 29 EMPLOYEE record occurrences, 34 EMPOSITION record occurrences, and 29 OFFICE record occurrences.

More information:

Database Field Name References

The DB-EXIT Facility