Enform Plus Reference Manual

Statements

Enform Plus Reference Manual—422684-001

4-38

OPEN Statement

The OPEN statement accesses the dictionary record description. The syntax of the OPEN

statement is:

record-name and record-name1

are the names of dictionary record descriptions.

record-name2

is a name that you supply for the copy of record-name1. record-name2 can

be the name of a dictionary record description.

Specifying an OPEN statement does not actually open a physical file; rather, the OPEN

statement causes Enform Plus to access the dictionary record description of the file. One

OPEN statement can open several record descriptions. Enform Plus stores the record

description in the internal table. The record description remains open until one of the

following occurs:

•

A CLOSE statement clears the record description.

•

Either a DICTIONARY statement or ?DICTIONARY command clears the entire

internal table.

•

The current Enform Plus session ends.

Using OPEN AS COPY OF

The OPEN AS COPY OF statement is useful when a record description is designed so

that records within a file relate to other records within the same file. Because LINK

statements associate record descriptions only with different record names, the OPEN AS

COPY OF statement refers to the same record description by a different record name.

Note that although the OPEN AS COPY OF statement opens record-name2, you must

open record-name1 before specifying this statement. Note also that record-name1 cannot

be specified as record-name2 in another OPEN AS COPY OF statement.

If you want to assign record-name2 to a file other than the file specified in the

dictionary for record-name1, you must use an Enform Plus ?ASSIGN command or

a TACL ASSIGN command to assign record-name2. An assignment of record-

name1 does not apply to record-name2.

OPEN { record-name }

{ record-name2 [ AS ] COPY [ OF ] record-name1 }, ... [ ; ]