Navigational DML Programming Techniques › Saving db-key, Page Information, and Bind Addresses › Saving Page Information

Saving Page Information

You can retrieve page information using one of these methods:

• Moving the page information of the record that is current of run unit from the PAGE-INFO field of the IDMS communications block.
• Accepting page information for a record type by using an ACCEPT PAGE-INFO statement.

Steps in Saving Page Information

To save page information, perform the following steps:

1. If the required record is current of run unit, move the PAGE-INFO field of the IDMS communications block to a variable storage field.
2. If you know the record type for which page information is desired:
   • Issue the ACCEPT PAGE-INFO statement, storing the output in a variable storage field.
   • Perform the IDMS-STATUS routine if the DBMS returns a nonzero value.

The variable storage field used to hold page information can either be defined as a binary fullword field (COBOL PIC S9(8) COMP SYNC) or as a group item consisting of two contiguous binary halfwords. In COBOL this might look as:

01 <group-field-name>.

   02 <page-group-field-name>  PIC S9(4) COMP SYNC.
   02 <dbkey-radix-field-name> PIC S9(4) COMP SYNC.

The latter definition enables the components of the page information to be accessed independently.

Important! You should not save page information outside of the program because the value can change if the database is unloaded and reloaded or if an area is assigned to a different page group.

Example of Using Page Information

The following example retrieves the page information for the DEPARTMENT record and uses the db-key radix to separate a db-key's page and line numbers.