Format type group
The Format Type group specifies the format of the data file.
The Format Type group has the following
choices.
| Choice | Description | See |
|---|---|---|
| Delimited | The fields of a data-file record are separated by a field delimiter, and records are separated by a record delimiter. The default delimiter for fields is a vertical bar (|). The default delimiter for records is a new line. | Modifying delimited-format options |
| Fixed Internal | The data file uses HCL Informix® internal format. The only changes to the data that you can make when you use this format are ALTER TABLE changes: modify the order of columns, delete or add columns, or change the data type. The HPL loads and unloads data in this format more efficiently than data in the Delimited and Fixed ASCII formats. | Other formats |
| Fixed ASCII | All records are the same length. Each record contains characters in fixed-length fields. This format is the same as the Fixed format choice of the Record Formats window. | Fixed-length records |
| Fixed Binary | The data file records contain data in fixed-length fields. Character-oriented data is in character fields. Numeric data (integer, float, and so on) is in machine-dependent binary values. Use this format for loading or unloading data for an application that has or requires data in binary format. Data in binary format is much more compact than data in ASCII format. | Fixed-length records |
| COBOL | The data file is formatted according to COBOL 86 standards. All COBOL data types are supported. | COBOL records |
| COBOL (byte) | The data file is formatted with byte alignments for COMP-4 data type. All COBOL data types are supported. |
Tip: To generate EBCDIC data, select the Delimited
or Fixed ASCII format and use the format options to change the code
set.