VMS Help SORT, Specification File Qualifiers, /FIELD  *Conan The Librarian (sorry for the slow response - running on an old VAX)

    Specification File Qualifier

    Defines the input record fields to be used for a sort or merge
    operation or in a conditional evaluation, or whose order or
    format will change in the output record. You identify each field
    by specifying a name, its position and size in the record, and
    its data type.

    You can also use /FIELD to define a constant and assign it a
    value of any valid sort/merge data-type for use in /KEY, /DATA,
    and /CONDITION statements.

    Formats

      /FIELD=(NAME=field-name,POSITION:n,)

      SIZE:n,[DIGITS:n,]data-type

      /FIELD=(NAME=field-name,VALUE:n,)

      SIZE:n,[DIGITS:n,]data-type

1 - Qualifier Values

 NAME=field-name

    Specifies the name of the field. The field-name cannot have any
    embedded spaces, must begin with an alphabetic character, and can
    be no longer than 31 characters.

 POSITION:n

    Specifies the position of the field in the record.

 VALUE:n

    Assigns a value to a constant field for use in a /KEY, /DATA,
    or /CONDITION statement. If you specify VALUE:n, do not specify
    /POSITION:n, because the field is a constant and not part of an
    input record.

 SIZE:n

    Specifies the size of a field containing character or binary
    data. In the specification file, SIZE implies byte lengths. The
    data type determines what values are acceptable, as well as the
    units in which the size is specified:

    o  For character data, the size must not exceed 32,767
       (characters).

    o  For binary data, the size specified must be 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16
       (bytes).

       High-performance Sort/Merge: The high-performance Sort/Merge
       utility currently supports only 1, 2, 4, and 8-byte binary
       keys.

    o  For floating-point data, no size is specified.

 DIGITS:n

    Specifies the size of a field containing decimal data. The size
    of a field containing decimal data is specified in digits. The
    size must not exceed 31 digits. Note that DIGITS:n is used only
    when describing a field containing decimal data.

 data-type

    Specifies the data type of the field. You are not required to
    specify the data-type if it is character; Sort assumes character
    data type by default. The following data types are recognized by
    OpenVMS Sort/Merge:

       CHARACTER
       BINARY[,SIGNED]
       BINARY,UNSIGNED
       D_FLOATING
       DECIMAL,LEADING_SIGN,[OVERPUNCHED_SIGN,SIGNED]
       DECIMAL,LEADING_SIGN,SEPARATE_SIGN[,SIGNED]
       DECIMAL[,SIGNED,TRAILING_SIGN,OVERPUNCHED_SIGN]
       DECIMAL,[TRAILING_SIGN],SEPARATE_SIGN[,SIGNED]
       DECIMAL,UNSIGNED
       F_FLOATING
       G_FLOATING
       H_FLOATING
       PACKED_DECIMAL
       S_FLOATING, IEEE (Alpha systems only)
       T_FLOATING, IEEE (Alpha systems only)
       PACKED_DECIMAL
       ZONED

2 - Full Description

    Use the /FIELD qualifier to define input record fields to be used
    for a sort or merge operation or in a conditional evaluation, or
    whose order or format will change in the output record.

    Identify each field by specifying a name in the /FIELD qualifier,
    a constant value or the field position, and the size and data
    type of the field. Field names must be unique; no duplicate
    field names are allowed. You cannot use more than 255 key field
    definitions.

    Once the field-name has been specified in the /FIELD qualifier,
    it can be used in the /CONDITION, /KEY, and /DATA qualifiers.

3 - Example

  /FIELD=(NAME=SALARY,POSITION:10,DIGITS:8,DECIMAL)

      This /FIELD qualifier identifies a field in a record by the
      name SALARY, specifies that it starts in position 10 of the
      record, is 8 digits long, and consists of decimal data.