HP OpenVMS Systems Documentation

The following table lists all DSR commands used for formatting lists:

The following table lists all DSR commands used for creating notes and footnotes:

The following table lists all DSR commands used for formatting chapters and appendixes:

The following table lists all DSR commands used for formatting sections:

The following table lists all DSR commands used for formatting indexes:

The following table lists all DSR commands used for formatting tables of contents:

The following table lists all DSR commands used for flag recognition:

The following table lists other miscellaneous DSR commands:

This chapter describes how to use the OpenVMS Sort/Merge utility (SORT/MERGE). The Sort/Merge utility performs two operations:

• Sorts records from one or more input files according to the fields you select and generates one reordered output file
• Merges up to 10 (high-performance Sort/Merge utility supports up to 12) input files that have been sorted previously according to the same key fields and generates one output file.

On Alpha systems, you can also choose the high-performance Sort/Merge utility. This utility takes advantage of the Alpha architecture to provide better performance for most Sort and Merge operations. Refer to Section 11.1 for information.

This chapter describes:

• High-performance Sort/Merge
• Sorting files
• Specifying collating sequences
• Running Sort as a batch job
• Merging files
• Entering records from a terminal
• Using a Sort/Merge specification file
• Optimizing a Sort or Merge operation
• Summary of Sort/Merge qualifiers

For additional information, see the following:

• For information on commands used in this chapter, refer to the OpenVMS DCL Dictionary.
• For information on how a system manager can improve efficiency when using the Sort/Merge utility, see the OpenVMS System Manager's Manual.

On Alpha systems, you can also choose the high-performance Sort/Merge utility. This utility takes advantage of the Alpha architecture to provide better performance for most Sort and Merge operations.

The high-performance Sort/Merge utility uses the same command line interface as SORT/MERGE. Any differences between the high-performance Sort/Merge utility and SORT/MERGE are noted throughout this chapter.

Use the SORTSHR logical to select the high-performance Sort/Merge utility. Define SORTSHR to point to the high-performance sort executable in SYS$LIBRARY as follows:

$ define sortshr sys$library:hypersort.exe

To return to SORT/MERGE, deassign SORTSHR. The SORT/MERGE utility is the default if SORTSHR is not defined.

The behavior of the high-performance Sort/Merge utility is the same as SORT/MERGE, except as shown in Table 11-1.

If you attempt to use an unsupported qualifier or assign an unsupported value to a qualifier, the high-performance Sort/Merge utility generates an error.

To sort files, use the DCL command SORT. Specify the names of the files to be sorted, separated by commas, followed by the name of the ordered output file to be created.

Optionally, you can specify a key for each field on which you want to sort. Each key includes the following information:

• Starting position of the key field in a record (required)
• Size of the key (required)
• Data type of the key
• Order in which the records are sorted
• Priority of the key

If you do not specify any keys, Sort assumes there is only one key and that this key field:

• Begins in the first position of a record
• Includes the entire record
• Contains character data
• Is sorted in ascending order

The following two examples use the default key.

1. In this example, the file NAMES.LST is sorted in ascending order:

   $ SORT NAMES.LST BYNAME.LST

   
   This command creates the ordered output file BYNAME.LST, as shown in Figure 11-1.

   Figure 11-1 List Sorted in Ascending Order

   ---

   
2. In this example, the files NAMES.LST and NAMES2.LST are sorted into the ordered output file BYNAME.LST. Sort treats the files as if they were one large file:

   $ SORT NAMES.LST,NAMES2.LST BYNAME.LST

See Section 11.9 for a complete list of SORT qualifiers.