SORT-MERGE/XL Programmer's Guide (32650-90884)

12 Chapter1

Introduction

Processing a Sort or Merge

SORT-MERGE/XL is a set of utilities that allows you to sort a group of records or merge

several sorted groups of records into one. The output contains records presented in a

speciﬁed sequence. You may use SORT-MERGE/XL as a utility and call it from the MPE

XL command interpreter (CI), or access it programmatically with the sort and merge

intrinsics from a program.

For each sort or merge operation, you must:

Open the work area (Initialization).

Specify input, output, keys, and collating sequences for the HPSORT-MERGE/XL

utility (Initialization).

Close the work area (Ending).

You may check errors and review statistics and title information as well.

Figure 1-1. shows you how HPSORT and HPMERGE intrinsics accomplish these tasks.

Figure 1-1. Flowchart of Intrinsic Order

Refer to the MPE/iX Intrinsics Reference Manual for detailed information about HPSORT

and HPMERGE intrinsics.