Sort Interface

The Sort object (ISort) is returned by the CreateSort function of the ComScript connection. Through this object, the functionality of the AMT-COBOL Sort utility can be used in programs that are written in any COM supporting development environment.

The following functionality is provided:

Properties

Name	Type	Access	Description
CopyOption	Boolean	Read/Write	Sets the SORT copy option (copy only, no sort).
DeleteDuplicateRecords	Boolean	Read/Write	Delete duplicate records in the sorted file.
ErrorCode	Integer	Readonly	The error code of the Sort object. Zero means there is no error.
ErrorDescription	String	Readonly	The error description of the Sort object. When no error occurred Ok will be returned.
FileRecordEnding	AmtFileRecordEnding	Read/Write	The file ending used by the file. For the allowed options see the AmtFileRecordEnding table below.
SortLinkSize	Integer	Read/Write	Sets the SORT link size.
SortNumRec	Integer	Read/Write	Specifies the number of records to process, should be set between 1 and 34,359,738,367.
WorkFolder	String	Read/Write	Set the temporary work folder name.
YYDateKey	Boolean	Read/Write	Set to true if the key is a date without century.

Functions

Function Name	Return type	Parameters		Description
Function Name	Return type	Name	Type	Description
AddAcceptKey	Void			Adds an ACCEPT parameter to the sort command.
		StartPos	Integer	The starting position.
		Length	Integer	The number of characters to be tested.
		Type	String	The Kind of data the field contains. Can be ASC, CAS or DEC.
		Operation	String	Test operation. Can be =, >, >=, <, <= or <>.
		Value	String	Contains the test data to be compared.
		LogicalOp	String	Logical operation. Can be AND or OR.
AddFileIn	Void	FileName	String	The path and name of the file to sort. More than one file may be added. They will be concatenated before sorting.
AddIncludeClosingBracket	Void	---		Adds a closing bracket to the list of include keys for nested conditions.
AddIncludeKey	Void			Adds an INCLUDE key to the sort command. When the condition matches, the record will be added to output.
		StartPos	Integer	The start position of the key.
		Length	Integer	The number of characters to be tested.
		Type	String	The kind of data that the field contains. Can be CH (character), BI (binary), PD (packed decimal), AQ (character with alternate collating sequence).
		Operation	String	Test operation. Can be =, >, >=, <, <= or <>.
		Value	String	Contains the test data to be compared.
		LogicalOp	String	Logical operation. Can be AND or OR.
AddIncludeLogicalOperator	Void	LogicalOp	String	Adds logical operator AND or OR to nested keys, the operator between closing and opening bracket.
AddIncludeOpeningBracket	Void	---		Adds an opening bracket to the list of include keys for nested conditions.
AddKey	Void	StartPos	Integer	Add a key to sort on. Multiple keys may be added, they will be evaluated in the order they are added. The description of the parameters together with the allowed values can be found in the table below.
		NumberOfChars	Integer
		Type	String
		SubType	String
		SortingOrder	String
AddOmitClosingBracket	Void	---		Adds a closing bracket to the list of omit keys for nested conditions.
AddOmitKey	Void			Adds an OMIT key to the sort command. When the condition matches, the record will be added to output.
		StartPos	Integer	The start position of the key.
		Length	Integer	The number of characters to be tested.
		Type	String	The kind of data that the field contains. Can be CH (character), BI (binary), PD (packed decimal), AQ (character with alternate collating sequence).
		Operation	String	Test operation. Can be =, >, >=, <, <= or <>.
		Value	String	Contains the test data to be compared.
		LogicalOp	String	Logical operation. Can be AND or OR.
AddOmitLogicalOperator	Void	LogicalOp	String	Adds logical operator AND or OR to nested keys, the operator between closing and opening bracket.
AddOmitOpeningBracket	Void	---		Adds an opening bracket to the list of omit keys for nested conditions.
AddOutrecField	Void			Adds a field to be added from the input record in the output record.
		StartPos	Integer	Start position of the field in the input record.
		Length	Integer	Length of the field.
		SeparationField	String	Separation characters to be put behind the field to separate it from the next field. Can be <n>X or <n>Z. <n>X adds n spaces to the output record, <n>Z adds n binary zeroes to the output record. Example: "2X"

AddSortSelect	Void			Adds an SELECT parameter to the sort command.
		StartPos	Integer	The start position
		Length	Integer	The number of characters to be selected.
		OutputPos	Integer	The output position of the selection.
				The output position of the selection.
AddSumField	Void			Add a field that gets its values summed for all duplicate records into 1 record. Only 1 record (in AMT the first record) will be written with the summed values. Other duplicate records are not written to the output file.
		StartPos	Integer	Start position of the key.
		Length	Integer	The number of characters to be tested.
		Type	String	The kind of data that the field contains. The allowed values can be found in the Type parameter in table below.

Init	Void	---		Initialize the Sort object (clear all settings of a previous sort)
SetFileOut	Void	FileName	String	The path and name of the file to write the sorted output to.
SetLinkSize	Void	Size	Integer	Sets link size, which affects how much of any variable length record is significant to the sort operation being performed.
SetNumericCoding	Void	Coding	String	Defines how Signed values are stored when using overpunch. There are four options: LION (default) ANSI EBCDIC UNIX If you are not sure which coding must be used, then this can be checked by the setting of the application option "Numeric Sign Encoding" in AMT-COBOL Developer (see the AMT-COBOL Developing manual). Attention: The NUMERIC-CODING setting in ComScript Sort should always be changed according to the setting in AMT-COBOL Developer Studio, and not the other way around. The setting in AMT-COBOL Developer Studio should never be changed since this would lead to unpredictable behavior.
SetRecSize	Void	Size	Integer	The size of the records to use for the output file. Longer records will be truncated and shorter records will be extended to this size.
SetSortSequence	Void	SortSequence	String	With this function the sort order of characters in a text file can be changed. Normal (default) is digits before capitals before lowercase letters. By using the SortSequence string "a-z,0-9,A-Z" the sort order will be lowercase before digits before capitals. Individual characters can be given the same place in the order by using the equal sign. For example "a=A,b-z,B-Z,0-9" will put lowercase and capital A at front followed by the lowercase letters the capitals and the digits. Note: the sort sequence is reversed when in the AddKey function the sort order is set to descending.
SetUnicode	Void	Unicode	Boolean	Sets Unicode or ASCII. Set to true for Unicode.
SortFile	Void	---		Execute the sort.
SortFileFromScript	Void	---		Execute the Sort from a script. This implements accept and select functions.

AddKey Parameters

Parameter	Allowed Values	Description
AscDsc	ASC DSC	Sort ascending or descending.
NumOfChar	any integer	The length of the field to use as key.
StartPos	any integer	The starting position of the field to use as key in the record.
SubType	L T l t	Subtype for signed numerics. L is leading separate, T trailing separate, l leading overpunch and t trailing overpunch.
Type	A 1 N 2 S 7 O 0 E 9 =	The type of the field. Some types are restricted by the application origin. A is Alpha, N is Numeric, S is Signed, O is Numeric computational, E is Financial computational, 1 is Numeric bit9 (OS2200 only), 2 is Financial bit9 (OS2200 only), 7 is Numeric binary (IBM & Microfocus), 0 is Financial binary (IBM & Microfocus), 9 is Numeric comp 9 (OS2200 only), = is Financial comp 9 (OS2200 only)

AmtFileRecordEnding

Value	File record Ending
0	Default
1	CR/LF
2	CR
3	LF
4	None

Example

PowerShell

#See ComScript Connection Interface
...
$ComScr.Connect()

#Create an Object of the Sort Interface

$Sort = $ComScr.CreateSort()

$Sort.AddFileIn('D:\Data\filetosort.txt')

$Sort.AddKey(1,3,'N',' ','ASC')

$Sort.SetFileOut('D:\Data\fileSorted.txt')

$Sort.SetRecSize(20)

$Sort.Sortfile()

#Check if an error occurred and log if so.

if ($Sort.ErrorCode -ne 0) {

[void]$Msg.AddMsgInformation("ErrorCode is: $($Sort.ErrorCode)")

[void]$Msg.AddMsgInformation("ErrorDescription is: $($Sort.ErrorDescription)")

} else {

[void]$Msg.AddMsgInformation("Sorting succeeded.")

}

# Finally release the variables and clean up the session.
$ComScr.Dispose()