Joining Tables or Database Records › Retrieving Information From CA IDMS/DB Records › Retrieving data from a single record

Retrieving data from a single record

Comparing a record to a table

Retrieving information from a CA IDMS/DB database record is comparable to retrieving rows from a table. The CA IDMS/DB record type (for example, the EMPLOYEE record) is like a table (for example, the EMP table). The EMPLOYEE record occurrences are like the rows of EMP table.

Signing on to a subschema

To access CA IDMS/DB database records, you have to first sign on to a subschema. A subschema is a view of the database. That is, it describes a subset of the database records that a CA IDMS/DB database contains.

To signon to a subschema, issue a SIGNON command:

signon ss=empss01

Coding the SELECT statement

To retrieve information from a single CA IDMS/DB database record, code the SELECT statement like this:

1. Enter record field names instead of column names following the SELECT keyword: emp-last-name-0415
2. Enter the record name instead of the table name following the FROM keyword: employee

Finding record names

If you do not know the record or the record field names that you need, issue these commands:

Example

List each office's code number, in ascending order, and city:

select office-code-0450, office-city-0450

  from office

  order by office-code-0450 ! display

                                  OFFICE REPORT
                                    01/27/99

                OFFICE-CODE-0450               OFFICE-CITY-0450
                ----------------               ----------------
                001                            SPRINGFIELD
                002                            BOSTON
                005                            GLASSTER
                008                            WESTON
                012                            CAMBRIDGE
     END OF REPORT