SYNONYMS Statement

Data Description Phase › Generator Control Statements › SYNONYMS Statement

SYNONYMS Statement

The SYNONYMS statement allows you to take advantage of the longer element, record, and set names permitted under CA IDMS/DB.

Assigns Existing Total Name

When the transparency generates schema and subschema descriptions, it assigns the existing Total name to the corresponding CA IDMS/DB name. The Total file name is assigned to the CA IDMS/DB record type. The Total data item name is assigned to the CA IDMS/DB element.

Size Limits

The following are the size limits that apply to Total and CA IDMS/DB names:

A Total file name allows 4 characters; the corresponding CA IDMS/DB record type name allows 16 characters
A Total data item name allows 8 characters; the corresponding CA IDMS/DB element name allows 32 characters

With the SYNONYMS statement, you can override the transparency's assignment of Total element and file names to CA IDMS/DB elements and records.

You can also use the SYNONYMS statement to override the set names that the transparency assigns to CA IDMS/DB sets established to represent relationships between Total master and variable files. The transparency derives CA IDMS/DB set names from the applicable Total master file, linkpath, and variable file names.

Example of the Transparency Assigning a Set Name

The following example shows how a CA IDMS/DB set name is derived from Total master file, linkpath, and variable file names.

Master file is CUST                CUST
+
Linkpath is CO                       CO
+
Variable file is CUOR            + CUOR
                            ___________

CA IDMS/DB set name   =    CUST-CO-CUOR

Syntax

►►── SYNONYMS ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────►

   ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
 ►─▼─┬─total-element-name────┬────────────────────────────┬─┬─ idms-name ──┴──►◄
     │                       └─┬─ IN ─┬─ total-file-name ─┘ │
     │                         └─ OF ─┘                     │
     ├─ total-file-name ────────────────────────────────────┤
     └─ transparency-assigned-set-name ─────────────────────┘

Parameters

SYNONYMS: Required keyword; must occupy a line by itself and begin in column 1.
total-element-name/total-file-name/transparency-assigned-set-name: Specifies the Total element or file name or the transparency-derived set name for which a synonym is to be used; this clause must begin in column 8.
total-element-name: 8-character element name specified in the input Total DDL.
total-file-name: 4-character file name specified in the input Total DDL.
transparency-assigned-set-name: Set name derived by CA IDMS TOTAL Transparency for a set established to correspond to a Total master file/variable file relationship.
IN/OF total-file-name: Identifies the Total file for which total-element-name is defined in the Total DDL. This parameter must be specified if total-element-name is not unique to a given Total file (that is, if total-element-name exists for more than one file defined in the Total DDL) or if total-element-name does not begin with the 4-character name of the file for which it is defined.
idms-name: Specifies the CA IDMS/DB name to be used in place of the name supplied by the generator. CA IDMS/DB element names must be from 1 to 32 characters long, and CA IDMS/DB record and set names must be from 1 to 16 characters long.

Example

The following is an example of the SYNONYMS control statement.

SYNONYMS
       CUST              CUSTOMER
       CUSTCTRL          CUSTOMER-KEY
       CUOR              CUSTOMER-ORDER
       ORNU-CO-CUOR      CUST-TO-ORDER
       SAMENAME OF DARE  SAME-NAME-OF-DARE