Dictionary/3000 Reference Manual (32244-90001)

Appendix D 337
How HP INFORM Links Files to Generate Reports
Default File Access
HP Inform/3000 to link WARRANTY directly with other files to retrieve as many elements
from the group as possible.
The elements “account”, “prod-no”, and “ship-date” are our three possibilities. Since
“ship-date” is not in the group, we will use “account” or “prod-no”. The data element
“account” links WARRANTY and SALESTAT, where “address” can be retrieved; the data
element “prod-no” links WARRANTY and INVENTORY, where “unit-cost” can be
retrieved. (Note that the values for “account”, “owner”, and “prod-no” will all be retrieved
from the MPE file since it is accessed first.) Since both data elements allow us to link to
one other file where one required element can be retrieved, it does not matter which one
we use.
After linking WARRANTY with SALESTAT through the element “account”, HP
Inform/3000 will try to use the element in the group with the next highest priority link
value to directly link WARRANTY or SALESTAT with INVENTORY - assuming “prod-no”
or “unit-cost” was requested for the report. To make this most efficient, we can give
“prod-no” a link value of 2.
Thus, we could add elements to the ACCOUNT ORDERS group as follows:
>ADD GROUP
GROUP> account orders <
ELEMENT> unit-cost <
ELEMENT ALIAS> cost of unit <
FILE>! <
ELEMENT> address <
ELEMENT ALIAS> ! <
ELEMENT> owner <
ELEMENT ALIAS> ! <
ELEMENT> account <
ELEMENT ALIAS> <
FILE> warranty <
VALUE AS A LINK> 1 <
DISPLAY ELEMENT ON MENU (Y/N)?>!
ELEMENT> prod-no <
ELEMENT ALIAS> product number <
FILE> <
VALUE AS A LINK> 2 <
DISPLAY ELEMENT ON MENU (Y/N)?>!
ELEMENT> <