FastSort Manual

Sorting Programmatically

FastSort Manual—429834-003

4-2

Starting a Sort or Merge Run

Use the SORTMERGESTART procedure to start a SORTPROG process and specify

parameters for a sort or merge run. SORTMERGESTART contains most of the

necessary parameters for the sort or merge run, including:



One or more input files



An output file for sorting or merging, or both



One or more key fields



Removal of records that have duplicate key values



The name of an initial scratch file and a block size for scratch file I/O



Subsort processes for parallel sorting



Parameters for running the SORTPROG process

You can use the SORTMERGESTART restart option to limit new process creation for

each sort or merge run, and to reuse a scratch file in successive runs.

Ending a Sort or Merge Run

To end a sort or merge run, use either the SORTMERGESTATISTICS or

SORTMERGEFINISH procedure. SORTMERGEFINISH also stops the SORTPROG

process, but SORTMERGESTATISTICS does not.

Specifying Record Blocking and Parallel Sorting

Use the SORTBUILDPARM procedure to specify record blocking, parallel sorting, and

overflow scratch volumes. The SORTBUILDPARM procedure specifies the following:



A buffer for record blocking to reduce interprocess messages when you use

SORTMERGESEND or SORTMERGERECEIVE (not valid for a merge run)



Processors (CPUs) or the restart option for subsort processes in parallel sorting



Volumes to either include or exclude from overflow scratch files

SORTERRORSUM Provides SORTERROR and SORTERRORDETAIL

information and identifies the cause of the most recent error.

SORTMERGESTATISTICS Reports information about a sort or merge run and ends the

run.

SORTMERGEFINISH Ends the sort or merge run and stops the SORTPROG

process.

Table 4-1. FastSort System Procedures (page 2 of 2)

Procedure Name Description