Determining your starting position via the Key Specification panel

You can determine your starting position in a database by entering values in the Key value fields on the Key Specification panel. This panel provides the ability to specify starting position criteria using operators other than “equal to? and “greater than or equal to?. If you have used a view, you can also specify your keys as formatted values, that is, you can specify binary and packed decimal numeric keys as their numeric values, instead of as byte values in hexadecimal (as you must do in the Database Positioning panel).

To specify your starting position:

  1. In the Database Positioning panel, type the K command in the Cmd field adjacent to the segment you want to view. The Key Specification panel is displayed and shows all the segments in the hierarchical path of the selected segment.
  2. Type a value in the Key value field for the specified segment.

    If you want to view a segment other than the root segment, enter values in the Key value fields for the segment you want and all segments above it in the hierarchy.

  3. Enter a relational operator in the relevant RO fields.
  4. Press Enter. The IMS data panel is displayed, with the first segment that matches your criteria positioned at the top of the data area.

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