English Commands

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).

Frequently Used Commands

The most frequently used English commands are:

LIST

SELECT

SORT

SSELECT

Other Commands

Other English commands include:

BSELECT

CHECK-SUM

COUNT

EDELETE

ESEARCH

EESEARCH

   

I-DUMP

LIST-ITEM

LIST-LABEL

 

LIST-SPREAD

REFORMAT

S-DUMP

SORT-ITEM

SORT-SPREAD

SREFORMAT

SSEARCH

STAT

SUM

     

Modifying Files

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.

Generating Implicit Lists

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.