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

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Preface
SORT-MERGE/XL Programmer's Guide is intended for use by experienced programmers
who are developing applications that require sorting or merging operations. This
Programmer's Series manual explains how to use the SORT-MERGE/XL subsystem and
related intrinsics.
This manual assumes knowledge of general programming and MPE concepts, but little or
no experience with the HPSORT or HPMERGE intrinsics. For current specific information
about the intrinsics, the MPE/iX Intrinsics Reference Manual.
Chapter 1, Introduction, offers an overview of the sorting and merging process, with flow
charts.
Chapter 2, Creating Core Routines that Sort and Merge, traces the development of Pascal
routines that do a simple sort and a simple merge operation. First the example routines
are presented step by step with descriptions of the development. The entire examples are
presented at the end of the chapter.
Chapter 3, Input and Output by Record, presents examples of a simple sort operation that
uses the option of input by record, and a simple merge operation that uses the option of
output by record. A Pascal example is also included in this chapter.
Chapter 4, Altering the Collating Sequence, presents an example of using an optional, or
alternate, collating sequence. A Pascal example is also included in this chapter.
Chapter 5, Getting SORT-MERGE/XL Information, tells you how to get status information
about a completed sorting or merging operation, and how to get title and version
information at any point in your sorting or merging program.
Appendix A, HPSORT Intrinsic Status Returns, and Appendix B, HPMERGE Intrinsic
Status Returns, list the error number, message, cause, and user corrective action for status
returns from the HPSORT and HPMERGE intrinsics.
Appendix C, ASCII/EBCDIC Table, shows the ASCII and EBCDIC character code values,
along with their decimal, octal, and hexadecimal equivalents.
Appendix D, FORTRAN Program Examples, gives five FORTRAN programs equivalent to
the five Pascal sorting and merging programs used as examples in Chapters 2, 3, and 4.
Appendix E, Data Types, gives tables that show the generic data types used in
SORT-MERGE/XL, and their equivalents in HP Business BASIC/XL, HP C/XL, HP
COBOL II/XL, HP FORTRAN 77/XL, and HP Pascal/XL.