USE GROUP Directive

The USE GROUP directive assigns a group of items to a single column in the table. The default data type for the resultant dataset in the database column is alphanumeric (CHAR (n), where n=1-max column length). The directive may be combined with other directives if the data is stored as a different type (DATE, NUMERIC). Combining fields into groups improves processing speed on the database, so effort is made to determine which fields can be combined.

$EFD USE GROUP

or

*(( EFD USE GROUP ))

or

*>(( EFD USE GROUP ))

Example

By adding the USE GROUP directive, the data is stored as a single numeric field where the column name is code-key.

01 CODE-RECORD. $EFD USE GROUP     05 CODE-KEY.        10 AREA-CODE-NUM    PIC 9(03).        10 CODE-NUM         PIC 9(07).

The USE GROUP directive can be combined with other directives. The fields are mapped into a single DATE type data column in the database.

*(( EFD DATE, USE GROUP ))     05 DATE-PURCHASED.        10 YYYY             PIC 9(04).        10 MM               PIC 9(02).        10 DD               PIC 9(02).