Coding Considerations

When you enter commands in CA OLQ command mode, keep in mind the following considerations as described in this chapter.

Commands

Using abbreviations
Ending command strings
Issuing multiple commands per line
Invoking function keys

Defining session characters

Defining comment characters
Defining separator characters

Entering data

Specifying data values
Specifying subscripts

Commands

Using abbreviations:

Three-letter abbreviations are valid for most commands and keywords.

Ending command strings:

You can end a command string with a comment character or a separator character.

Comment characters signal to CA OLQ that everything following is to be ignored. You can use comment characters to document qfiles. Use separator characters for separating commands in the input field. Even when commands are one to a line in the input field, they must be separated by a separator character.

Issuing multiple commands:

You can specify multiple commands in a single pseudo-converse by using a separator character. The separator character is defined at system generation as the exclamation point (!).

Example:

signon ss empss01! select * from employee

Use with SELECT (IDMS mode)

Anytime you use separators with SELECT (IDMS mode) they must precede the SELECT statement.

For instance, the following is valid syntax:

delete table employee.job!select all from emp_id

However, CA IDMS/DB does not accept the syntax below because the separator (!) comes after the SELECT statement:

select all from emp_id!delete table employee.job

Invoking function keys from the command line:

To invoke a predefined function from a terminal that does not have function keys, the user can enter the following commands on the command line:

PF pf-key-number or
PA pa-key-number

Pf-key-number: Specifies any number in the range 1 through 99; pa-key-number must be either 1 or 2.

Continuation character:

You can continue commands across pseudo-converses with a continuation character. You can also use the continuation character to continue batch or qfile commands on a following line.

For more information:

Commands and Syntax

Defining session characters

Defining the comment character:

The default comment character is the semi-colon (;), as defined at system generation. You can change the definition at any time in command mode CA OLQ by issuing a SET COMMENT CHARACTER command.

Access mode: You cannot use comment characters with SELECT (IDMS mode) statements.

Defining the separator character:

You can change the definition of the separator character with the SET SEPARATOR CHARACTER command.

Defining the continuation character:

You can change the definition of the continuation character with the SET CONTINUATION CHARACTER command.

For more information:

Commands and Syntax

Entering Data

The following input considerations should be noted:

Commas as decimal points— Any numeric value that contains an embedded comma can be interpreted as a decimal number. The ability to recognize commas as decimal points is enabled at system generation. For more information about international options, see Integrated Data Dictionary Options.
Record names and CA OLQ keywords— If a database record name is the same as a CA OLQ keyword, the name should
be enclosed in quotation marks.

Specifying data values:

CA OLQ commands sometimes require user-supplied data values, such as a CALC key, sort key, database key, or user-defined item. The following types of data values are recognized by CA OLQ:

Integer— A whole number in the range -32767 through +32767; for example, 2220.
Binary—A binary number; for example, B'0110'.
Real number—A decimal number; for example, 12.23.
Hexadecimal number—A string of up to 64 hexadecimal digits enclosed in single or double quotation marks and preceded by an X. An even number of digits must be specified; for example, X'00AFD6'.
Simple character string—A 1- to 64-character alphanumeric value that can consist of alphabetic letters, numeric digits, and special characters. Special characters include the at sign (@), dollar sign ($), pound sign (#), and hyphen (-); for example, @DEPT-NAME or EMP-#.
Complex character string—A 1- to 256-character alphanumeric value enclosed in single or double quotation marks. If a quotation mark appears within a string, it must appear twice or be distinguishable from the enclosing quotation marks. The following examples illustrate acceptable formats for specifying quotation marks within complex character strings:
```
"LEE'S"
'LEE"S'
'LEE''S'
```
Note: Enclosing quotation marks are not evaluated by the CA OLQ command processor. If the value of a complex character string matches a field name specified in the same command, the results are unpredictable.
Graphics literal—A string of up to 32 double-byte characters string (DBCS) characters enclosed with shiftstrings and single quotation marks and prefixed by a G.

Example:

G'<DBCS characters>'

A mix of EBCDIC and DBCS characters is allowed as long as the correct shiftin/shiftout sequences identifies the code set.

Example:

'ABC<DBCS characters>UVW'

Group value—A series of values specified in any of the forms described above, separated by commas or blanks. Group values cannot exceed 64 characters in length. Group values can be enclosed in parentheses; for example, ('8 Cedar St','Worcester, MA',02312).
Database key—A decimal page and line number that define the actual location of the record in the database; For example, 10023:14, where 10023 is the database page number and 14 is the line number of the specified record.
Floating point constant—A representation of a real number as a fixed-point value with an exponent. Floating point constants are entered as follows:
```
- value E+/-integer-value
```
The following examples illustrate typical floating point constants:
```
1.2E-22
-3E2
```

Numeric and alphanumeric character strings for database fields are interpreted according to their formats in the subschema view. The user need not supply leading zeros or trailing blanks; CA OLQ automatically pads values, as follows:

Alphanumeric— Left-justified, padded with blanks
Numeric— Decimal-aligned, sign-extended (default is plus), zero-filled to the right of the decimal

Specifying subscripts

Subscripts are used to identify specific field entries in an array.

Example:

If a record contains sales figures for two divisions of a company for each quarter in the last five years, the array of values is as follows:

Year 1   Quarter 1           Div-sales 1
                                  Div-sales 2
         Quarter 2           Div-sales 1
                                  Div-sales 2
         Quarter 3           Div-sales 1
                                  Div-sales 2
         Quarter 4           Div-sales 1
                                  Div-sales 2
Year 2   Quarter 1           Div-sales 1
                                  Div-sales 2
         Quarter 2           Div-sales 1
                                  Div-sales 2
         Quarter 3           Div-sales 1
                                  Div-sales 2
         Quarter 4           Div-sales 1
                                  Div-sales 2
 .
 .
 .

In the above example, two subscripts must be specified to reference a specific quarter.

Example:

QUARTER(1,4) selects the fourth quarter of the first year.

Three subscripts must be specified to reference a specific division in a specific quarter.

Example:

DIV-SALES(2,3,1) selects the third quarter sales for the first division in year 2 of the array.