This topic discusses the ways to describe records in database files.
Records in database files can be described in two ways:
- Field-level description. The fields in the record are described to the
system. Some of the things you can describe for each field include: name,
length, data type, validity checks, and text description. Database files that
are created with field-level descriptions are referred to as
externally described files.
- Record-level description. Only the length of the record in the file is
described to the system. The system does not know about fields in the
file. These database files are referred to as program-described files.
Whether a file is described to the field or record level, you must describe
and create the file before you can compile a program that uses that file.
That is, the file must exist on the system before you use it.