IBM Extension

FORMAT Phrase

The value specified in the FORMAT phrase contains the name of the record format to use for this I-O operation. The system uses this to specify or select which record format to operate on.

Identifier-1, if specified, must be an alphanumeric data item of 10 characters or less.

Literal-1, if specified, must be an uppercase character-string of 10 characters or less.

A value of all blanks is treated as though the FORMAT phrase were not specified. If the value is not valid for the file, a FILE STATUS of 9K is returned and a USE procedure is invoked, if applicable for the file.

If specified, the file position indicator is set to the first record of the specified record format that satisfies the comparison. If omitted, the current record pointer is set to the first record of any format that satisfies the comparison.

See Table 1 for a description of how the FORMAT phrase interacts with the EXTERNALLY-DESCRIBED-KEY and KEY IS phrases.

End of IBM Extension