An English command is the first word in the English sentence. The command is the name of a processor that performs the required data retrieval and manipulation. The names of the processors are usually defined in your account's Master Dictionary (MD).
The English Commands section contains detailed descriptions of the English commands, and of a very small number of commands that do not have the same syntax but can be useful to users of English. The commands are listed in alphabetical order.
List Processing Commands describes the list processing commands (which have different syntax).
The most frequently used English commands are:
| LIST | SELECT | SORT | SSELECT |
Other English commands include:
| BSELECT | CHECK-SUM | COUNT | EDELETE |
| ESEARCH | I-DUMP | LIST-ITEM | LIST-LABEL |
| LIST-SPREAD | REFORMAT | S-DUMP | SORT-ITEM |
| SORT-SPREAD | SREFORMAT | SSEARCH | STAT |
| SUM |
With the exception of EDELETE, none of the English commands affects the contents of the original file(s). REFORMAT and SREFORMAT write to a nominated file.
A number of English and non-English commands generate an implicit list. These are:
| AND-ITEMS | AND-LISTS | BSELECT | ESEARCH |
| FORM-LIST | GET-LIST | ISELECT | NEW-GET-LIST |
| NSELECT | OR-ITEMS | OR-LISTS | QSELECT |
| SEARCH | SELECT | SELECT-INDEX | SSEARCH |
| SSELECT | XOR-ITEMS | XOR-LISTS | XSELECT |
You can process the list using another English sentence, a list processing command, a TCL-II command such as COPY or EDIT, a DataBasic program, or a Proc. For information on processing the list through a DataBasic program or Proc, refer to DataBasic Reference or Proc Reference, respectively.