Dictionary/3000 Reference Manual (32244-90001)

46 Chapter3
Using the DICTDBM Commands
Using Commands to Define HP Inform/3000 Groups
• no other potential driving file has been designated which has a higher priority link
value specified and contains an element requested for the report.
Hence, if you respond to the FILE prompt and designate a link value of 1 for a particular
element, the specified file will be accessed first whenever any element which exists in that
file is requested in a report. If you respond to the FILE prompt and designate a link value
of 2 for another element, the file specified in response to this FILE prompt will be accessed
first whenever any element which exists in that file is requested in a report and no element
which exists in the first file is requested.
NOTE The linking process determines whether it is possible to generate the
requested report and, if so, what specific data will be printed in the report.
For more information about linking, link values, and driving files, see
Appendix D of this manual, How HP Inform/3000 Links Files to Generate
Reports.
The DISPLAY ELEMENT ON MENU prompt allows the user to determine whether an
element is to be displayed on HP Inform/3000's Data Names Menu and used when
generating reports. By not displaying an element on the menu, you can include an
element in the group for linking and not allow it to be used for reporting.
Note that a CHILD data element can not be used in linking files. CHILD elements can,
however, be requested in an HP Inform/3000 report as long as they have been added to the
group; the PARENT element alone in the group is not sufficient. If a data element which is
a CHILD is needed for a report, HP Inform/3000 will try to find the PARENT element.
Since a CHILD element could have more than one PARENT, it will first use a PARENT
that has been added to the group. If no PARENT of the CHILD element exists in the
group, HP Inform/3000 tries to find any PARENT of the CHILD element it can find. In
order to ensure that the correct CHILD element is retrieved, you should add the PARENT
element to the group (in addition to the CHILD element); if you do not wish users to report
on the PARENT element, add it to the group and respond "NO" to the DISPLAY
ELEMENT ON MENU prompt. (You may also wish to specify a link value of -1, if you do
not want the PARENT element to be used to link files.) HP Inform/3000 retrieves the
value of the entire PARENT element, but only displays the value of the appropriate
CHILD element in the report.
You can display association entries by using the REPORT or SHOW commands. To delete
the association, use the DELETE command; to change it use the UPDATE command. The
order in which the elements are associated with the group are the order they will appear
on HP Inform/3000's Data Names Menu; this can be changed by using the RESEQUENCE
command.