ASCENDING/DESCENDING KEY Phrase Rules

When the ASCENDING/DESCENDING KEY phrase is specified, the following rules apply:
  • Keys must be listed in decreasing order of significance.
  • You must arrange the data in the table in ASCENDING or DESCENDING sequence according to the collating sequence in use.
  • A key can have DISPLAY, BINARY, PACKED-DECIMAL, or COMPUTATIONAL usage.
IBM Extension
IBM Extension
  • The KEY phrase can be specified in the OCCURS clause for a DBCS item.
  • A key can have COMPUTATIONAL-1, COMPUTATIONAL-2, COMPUTATIONAL-3, COMPUTATIONAL-4, or COMPUTATIONAL-5 usage.
  • A key can have DISPLAY-1 usage.
  • A key can be an item of class date-time.
End of IBM Extension
End of IBM Extension