Data Definition Language (DDL) Reference Manual

Dictionary-Manipulation Statements
Data Definition Language (DDL) Reference Manual—529431-004
8-2
DELETE
token-name
is a name that uniquely identifies an existing token code in the open dictionary.
You can specify token-name up to 50 times.
map-name
is a name that uniquely identifies an existing token map in the open dictionary. You
can specify map-name up to 50 times.
type-name
is a name that uniquely identifies an existing token type in the open dictionary. You
can specify type-name up to 50 times.
Before using the DELETE statement, open the dictionary on the appropriate
subvolume with the DICT command.
The DELETE statement deletes a DDL object only from the dictionary; it does not
delete the corresponding entries from any DDL, FUP, or language source code files.
Before you can delete an object that is referenced by other objects, you must first
delete all the objects that refer to it.
Deleting an object that is referenced by another object is more complicated than
deleting an object that is not referenced. For example, deleting a definition can be
more complicated than deleting a record because a record is never referenced by
another record or by a definition. Similarly, deleting a constant or a token type can be
more complicated than deleting a token map or a token code because token maps and
token codes are never referenced by another object.
Deleting a constant is particularly complicated because constants are usually
referenced by a number of different objects.
When deleting a constant, a definition, or a token map, use the SHOW USE OF
statement to display all the objects that refer to the object you want to delete. You can
use an OUTPUT UPDATE statement to produce DDL source code that can be used to
delete the objects that refer to an object you want to delete.
If you do not use the OUTPUT UPDATE statement, you must delete every object that
refers to a specified object before you can delete that object. This includes not only
direct references, in which object B refers to object A directly, but also indirect
references, in which, for example, object B refers to object A and object C refers to
object A by referring to object B.