Defining an item Schema DDL
60 U929-J-Z125-9-76
4.2.4 Defining an alphanumeric item of fixed length ⎧PICTURE IS mask-st ring ⎫
[level-number ]item-name ⎨ ⎬.
⎩TYPE IS CHARACTER integer⎭
Alphanumeric items can contain any type of character.
level-number denotes whether the item is part of a repeating group: If the item is not to be
part of a repeating group, the specified level number should be the smal lest level number
in the whole record type. This is especially impor tant if the item is to be used as a key item.
If the item is to be part of a repeating group, proceed as descr ibed on page 66.
item-name specifies the name assigned by the user.
mask-string may consist of the following symbols:
The first symbol in a mask string must be A or X. (A mask string begin ning with 9 defines a
numeric item.)
The item can be defined for a maximum of 255 characters. The digit symbol may not be
repeated more than 18 times and the mask string may consist of no m ore than 30
characters.
Symbol Designation Explanation
X
stands for a storage location containing any
character of the character set.
A
stands for a storage location containing a letter or
a blank. UDS/SQL does not distinguish between A
and X however.
9 Digit symbol
stands for a storage location containing a digit.
9 may not stand to the left of A or X.
(integer) Repetiti on symbol
Each of the X, A or 9 symbols can be repeated.
To do this, the user can either write the symbols the
desired number of times or add a repetition factor
integer after the symbol to denote the number of
times the symbol is to be repeated.
The default value is 1; the maximum value is 18 for
9 and 255 for X and A.
Table 5:Symbols of mask-string when defining an alphanumeric item of fixed length