The USING Connective

The USING connective makes it possible to generate a report using the Attribute Definition items in any dictionary. This dictionary need not contain a pointer (a File Definition item) to the data file.

To generate a report from the CUSTOMERS file, the system accesses both the CUSTOMERS dictionary and the CUSTOMERS data file. Assume that the sample application also includes a data file which contains information about customers whose accounts are inactive. Instead of creating a second file dictionary for the CUSTOMERS.INACTIVE file, use the dictionary of the CUSTOMERS file to access data in CUSTOMERS.INACTIVE, since the structure of both files is the same.

This query generates a report from the CUSTOMERS.INACTIVE file, using the structure defined by the CUSTOMERS dictionary:

>LIST CUSTOMERS.INACTIVE USING DICT CUSTOMERS FULL-NAME CITY STATE

PAGE 1		10:53:20 DD MMM YYYY

CUSTOMERS.INACTIVE	Full Name..................	City................	State

AMCSI5349	MCSIMPLE, AMY	VENICE	CA
CWILL5386	WILLIAMS, CHARLES	ARLINGTON	MA
JCROW5329	CROWLEY, JULIA	NORTHWOOD	NH
CGILL5284	GILLETTE, CRAWFORD	MYRTLE BEACH	SC
MRUST5317	RUST, MURRAY	OGUNQUIT	MA
PLOMB5244	LOMBARD, PETER	NEW YORK	NY

6 ITEMS LISTED.

>

The structure of the data in the referenced attributes of the CUSTOMERS file is identical to the structure defined for the CUSTOMERS file. The raw data stored in the two files, however, is different.