Deciding if you will use a view

Having determined the mode for accessing your database, the next step is to decide if you will use a view or not when displaying the data. Your databases can be displayed without using a view, or with a view applied. You have the option of using either a temporary view that the function creates from a template for the database, or an existing view.

Data displayed without a view appears as unformatted text, with no indication that the segments consist of individual fields. Fields containing numeric data encoded in binary or packed decimal format are represented by double line hexadecimal values.

Data displayed with a view applied appears as formatted text, in the fields defined by the template. The view defines which fields from the template are displayed, the order in which the fields are shown and, if field selection criteria has been defined, which segments are displayed.