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.