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

42 Chapter3
Input and Output by Record
Record Input
example, if your program accepts input from a terminal). Record input is only available for
SORT/XL.
Choose the output by record option when you want to sort or merge information during a
program's execution without directly storing the information. For example, use it if you
want to display a sorted list to a user's terminal, or if you want a chance to modify the
output before storing in a file.
Record Input
Record input is useful for sorting information that is entered interactively or produced
internally by a program. To input records to SORT/XL you use the HPSORTINPUT intrinsic.
MERGE/XL does not allow record input. The syntax of HPSORTINPUT is:
HPSORTINPUT (
status , buffer , length );
The
buffer parameter contains the record to be input.
NOTE The buffer parameter is a character (byte) array. If your record contains
other data types, you must build buffer byte by byte.
The
length parameter contains the length of the record.
NOTE This value must not be greater than the value of the reclength parameter in
the HPSORTINIT intrinsic.
An example of using HPSORTINPUT follows:
var
status : INTEGER;
buffer : packed array [1..80] of CHAR;
length : INTEGER;
.
.
.
HPSORTINPUT (status, buffer, length);
To use record input:
• The
reclength parameter in HPSORTINIT must be specified.
• The
inputfiles parameter in HPSORTINIT must not be specified.