Record Selection Overview

After you have designed a report layout or a mass load display layout, you need to specify the criteria for selecting the records to include in the report or mass load.

The program offers two selection processes. One is a standard selection process and the other is an advanced selection process. Each selection process uses a series of conditional statements. The first conditional statement selects a subset of records from the file. Each additional statement selects records from the prior subset. The standard process is more structured and has less functionality than the advanced process. The following table explains the differences between the two selection processes.

Selection Process

Description

Using Standard Record Selection

On the Report Writer/Mass Load Selection screen, you can enter one conditional expression at a time and assign it a select number. You can do this up to five times. The system evaluates multiple select statements in order according to their assigned select numbers.

Each conditional statement uses a combination of verbs, modifiers, conjunctions, dictionary item names, and operators to select a subset of records from the file being used to generate the report or mass load. The structure of the screen removes most of the guesswork from creating conditional expressions.

The limitations are as follows:

The select statement on each screen links to the next with an implied AND operator.
One select statement can contain multiple conditions, but you cannot use parentheses in the expression to change the order in which the statement evaluates.

Using Advanced Record Selection

On the Advanced Report Writer/Mass Load Selection screen, you can enter up to five conditional statements to specify selection criteria, all on the same screen. Each conditional statement uses a combination of verbs, modifiers, conjunctions, dictionary item names, and operators to select a subset of records from the file being used to generate the report or mass load. To use this screen, you need to have a good understanding of the verbs, operators, and rules for creating conditional statements.

Additional differences that make this option more advanced are:

If you have two files that use the same record ID, you can select records from one file and then run the report based on information stored in the other file.
You can use parentheses in conditional expressions to change the order in which the expression evaluates.