Micro Focus Visual COBOL 2.3 for Visual Studio 2015 > Programming > Data Access > File Handling > File Handling Guide > Sort Utilities > Invoking Mfsort > Instructions > FIELDS Instruction

FIELDS Instruction

A SORT or MERGE instruction must be followed by a FIELDS instruction which specifies the fields on which the input file is to be sorted or merged.

A fields instruction takes the following form:

fields({start,length,type,order},...)

where the parameters are:

Parameter	Description
`start`	The starting position of the field in the record, counting in bytes from 1
`length`	The length of the field (bytes)
`type`	The type of data in the field. See the section Field Types .
`order`	The ordering of output, which can be either of: A - ascending D - descending

You can specify up to 100 fields by repeating the parameter set (start, length, type and order). Use commas to separate the parameters and the parameter sets.