DDS for physical and logical files


SIGNED (Signed) keyword for physical and logical files

Use this key field-level keyword to specify that when sequencing the values associated with this numeric key field, the OS/400 program is to consider the signs of the values (negative versus positive values).

This keyword has no parameters.

The following example shows six records with a zoned decimal key field:

Record Numeric Key Field (Zoned Decimal) Hexadecimal Representation
1 98 F9F8
2 00 F0F0
3 98- F9D8
4 97 F9F7
5 20 F2F0
6 99 F9F9

By default (with no sequencing keywords specified and without the ALTSEQ keyword), the key field has the SIGNED attribute. The records are sequenced in the following order:

Record Numeric Key Field (Zoned Decimal) Hexadecimal Representation
3 98- F9D8
2 00 F0F0
5 20 F2F0
4 97 F9F7
1 98 F9F8
6 99 F9F9

If both SIGNED and DESCEND are specified, the records are sequenced in this order:

Record Numeric Key Field (Zoned Decimal) Hexadecimal Representation
6 99 F9F9
1 98 F9F8
4 97 F9F7
5 20 F2F0
2 00 F0F0
3 98- F9D8

This keyword is not valid for a character, date, time, timestamp, or hexadecimal data type field. You cannot use it with the ABSVAL, DIGIT, UNSIGNED, or ZONE keywords.

SIGNED (a key field-level keyword) causes ALTSEQ (a file-level keyword) to be ignored. If you specify SIGNED for a key field, NOALTSEQ is automatically in effect for that key field even if ALTSEQ is specified at the file level. This occurs whether or not NOALTSEQ is specified.

Example:

The following example shows how to specify the SIGNED keyword for a physical file.

|...+....1....+....2....+....3....+....4....+....5....+....6....+....7....+....8
00010A          R RECORD
00020A            FLDA           7S 2
00030A            FLDB
00040A          K FLDA                      SIGNED
     A


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