User guide

3 Developing an ENFORM Query
058058 Tandem Computers Incorporated 3–1
The primary aim of entering a query is to retrieve the information you want from the
data base. Depending on your needs, ENFORM provides the information in one of the
following forms: as a report, as a new physical file, or as records transmitted to a host
language program. This section discusses the steps needed to produce a report or a
new physical file. (Refer to Section 6 for information about transmitting records to a
host language program). The steps are:
Establishing the environment to be used for the query by using statements and
commands such as ?DICTIONARY, OPEN, ?ASSIGN, DECLARE, and SET.
Establishing relationships between record descriptions by using the LINK
statement or the WHERE clause.
Specifying the information selected by using the LIST or FIND statement.
Restricting the information selected by using the WHERE clause.
Specifying the sorting and grouping of selected information by using the BY, BY
DESC, ASCD, or DESC clauses.
Specifying computations for selected information by using the SUBTOTAL,
TOTAL, PCT, or CUM clauses.
Formatting a report by using clauses and statements such as TITLE, HEADING,
AT END, AS, SPACE, or TAB.
The first five steps apply to any ENFORM query that produces a report or creates a
new physical file. The last two steps apply only to a query that produces a report. The
following paragraphs discuss these steps and offer a brief overview of the various
operations you can perform during an ENFORM session (the period of time that
begins when you enter the ENFORM command and ends when you exit the ENFORM
subsystem).