This value specifies the length of the records submitted to SORT. The utility breaks the record size parameter into the following three fields:
|
Fields |
Significance |
|
[47:01] |
1, to indicate the new format. |
|
[46:24] |
Number of records. These 24 bits pass the number of records to the SORT utility for certain memory-only sorts. Refer to “Memory-Only Mode” under “Sort Operating Modes” later in this section. |
|
[19:20] |
Record size. |
The record length specifies the length in words or characters—depending on whether the array parameters of the procedure are word or character arrays, respectively—of the largest item to be sorted.
An input procedure should cause variable-length records to be edited into fixed-length records, and an output procedure should cause the fixed-length records to be edited back into variable-length records.
In ALGOL, if the record size is not a positive integer, the largest integer not greater than the absolute value of the expression is used. For example, a record length of 12 would be used if an expression had a value of -12.995. If the value of the record size is 0, the program terminates.
