COBOL/400 Language Help
Data-name-1 specifies a KEY data item on which the merge will be
based. Each data-name must identify a data item in a record associated
with file-name-1. In MERGE, the data names following the
word KEY are listed from left to right in order of decreasing significance
without regard to how they are divided into KEY phrases. The left-most
data-name is the major key, the next data-name is the
next most significant key, and so forth. The following rules
apply:
- A specific KEY data item must be physically located in the same position
and have the same data format in each input file. However, it does not
need to have the same data-name.
- If file-name-1 has more than one file description, the KEY data
items need be described in only one or the record descriptions.
- KEY data items must be fixed-length items.
- KEY data items must not contain an OCCURS clause or be subordinate to an
item that contains OCCURS.
- KEY data items can be qualified or reference modified; they cannot be
subscripted or indexed. (Click here for information about reference modification.)
- The total length (in bytes) of the KEY data items must not exceed
256.
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