ACCESS Procedure Reference

GROUP= Statement

Defines the groups within the record.

Optional statement
Applies to:	access descriptor

Syntax
Details
Arguments

Syntax

GROUP= group-name LEVEL=level-number <KEY=Y|N|U> <OCCURS=number-of-repeats> <SEARCH=search-name>;

Details

The group name is the name that you want to assign to the group item in an IMS database. This name can be a maximum of 32 characters. If any special characters or blanks are included in the name, enclose the entire name in quotation marks. This is a required argument.

The GROUP= statement defines the groups within the record. This statement is optional.

See Handling GROUP Keys in Descriptor Files for information about how to reference GROUP keys in a view descriptor's WHERE statement.

Arguments

In the GROUP= statement, you must enter the group name and level number. The other arguments are used to further define the group and are not required. The following list explains each argument that can appear in a GROUP= statement:

LEVEL= LV=

specifies the two-character numeric level of the IMS item. This level number is similar to the COBOL level number. Groups have levels greater than 01, and their level numbers are less than the level numbers of the items within the group. This is a required argument.

KEY= K=

indicates with an Y, N, or a U whether this item is defined in the DBD as a sequence or key field and whether the key sequence field is unique. The default setting, N, indicates the field is not a key sequence field. You must assign one key sequence field per segment if you plan to use the view descriptors that are created from this access descriptor to update the IMS database. Keys are recommended, but not required, for all segments except the lowest hierarchical level if the view descriptors will be used only for data retrieval. When KEY=U, retrieval calls to IMS will be reduced because the IMS engine will know that there is only one segment in the database for this key.

OCCURS= O=

indicates the number of times a repeating group occurs. This is an optional argument.

SEARCH= SE=

specifies the search field name defined for the group item in the DBMS DBD. If you want the IMS engine to create SSAs directly from a WHERE statement or command, you must enter the search field names. Otherwise, the WHERE statement is passed to SAS and all of the segments in the database that are referenced in the view descriptor are read. SEARCH= is an optional argument, but it is recommended where applicable.

Note: See Handling GROUP Keys in Descriptor Files for important information about searching at the GROUP level. Also see Performance and Efficient View Descriptors for more information about SSAs and WHERE statements. [cautionend]

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