ENABLE User's Guide

DEVELOPING A DATA BASE

ENABLE Limitations on DDL

Because ENABLE uses record descriptions to generate SCREEN COBOL

source code, the syntax of a RECORD statement must be compatible

with SCREEN COBOL representation capabilities. Specifically,

this affects the syntax that you can use for the RECORD statement

as follows:

• If you use a TYPE clause or a user-defined TYPE (see the Data

Definition Language (DDL) Reference Manual for details), the

data type must be either CHARACTER or BINARY.

• BINARY 8, FLOAT 32, FLOAT 64, COMPLEX, LOGICAL 2 and LOGICAL 4

data items are not supported by ENABLE.

• When you define numeric fields, the PIC clause cannot define

more than 18 digits; for example, both PIC 9999999999999999999

and PIC 9(19) are illegal.

• If you use an OCCURS clause, the OCCURS clause nesting must

not exceed four levels. The number of occurrences must not

exceed 999.

• When you specify elementary fields, the size of each field

must not exceed 256 bytes.

• If you add the values specified for the size descriptions of

all the fields in the record description, the total number of

bytes must not exceed 2046.

• You can use a FILLER clause; however, the application will not

display the filler on the screen.

• You can use a REDEFINES clause; however, ENABLE ignores the

redefined structure.

• You can use a RENAMES clause; however, ENABLE ignores the

renamed structure.

• If you identify the entire record as a key field, an ENABLE

application will use the first group or elementary item in the

record as the key.

• If you use an OCCURS DEPENDING ON clause, ENABLE will use the

maximum number of occurs items. Refer to the ENABLE Reference

Manual for more information.

Refer to the Data Definition Language (DDL) Reference Manual

for more information about the RECORD statement.

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