FIND/OBTAIN Special Considerations

In the Format 6 FIND/OBTAIN command, there are three options for specifying the symbolic key:

SORTKEY causes CA IDMS DMLO to gather multiple sort-keys into an internal work area for the use of the actual CA IDMS DML call to CA IDMS. The SORTKEY parameter provides support for multiple non-contiguous sort-key fields, but may also be used for records with contiguous or single sort-key fields.
If SORTKEY is entered for a set sorted by db-key, then the KEY field, as shown in the command/status area, will be used as the key for the CA IDMS DML call to CA IDMS.
field-name names a field which will be used as the key for the set or index named in the command. This option is used for contiguous or single sort-key fields. The specified field-name need not be an element within the specified record.
literal may be specified for any sorted set. The literal may be in character, hexadecimal, or dbkey format as may be appropriate. Use of a literal behaves as though the data had in fact been keyed into the record fields comprising the SORTKEY (literal length need not match the sum of fields).
See the discussion of CLIST Example #2 for allowable literal formats.