This document describes the Adabas commands for accessing and manipulating an Adabas database. The commands are generally embedded as calls to Adabas from within an application written in a third generation language such as C (the call interface is described in the document Calling Adabas).

This document is intended for software developers who wish to use Adabas direct calls to develop database applications.

The document consists of the following:

Concepts and Facilities, provides an overview of the types of commands available, and how database integrity is maintained in a multi–user environment.

Calling Adabas, provides linking information for Adabas application programs, and describes the standard calling procedure for Adabas user calls. It also describes in detail the Adabas Control Block, Format Buffer, Record Buffer, Search Buffer, Value Buffer and ISN Buffer, with many examples of usage.

Programming Considerations, describe Adabas programming features which can provide significant improvement in the performance of an application. The topics discussed are: using command IDs; special processing based on ISN lists; using the multifetch feature to retrieve multiple records with a single Adabas call.

Adabas Commands, provides a detailed description for each Adabas command.

Appendix A, File Definitions, provides a summary of the file and record definitions that are used in the examples throughout this documentation.

Appendix B, File Definition for Sample Program, contains the file definition used for the sample program in Appendix C.

Appendix C provides an example of an application program written in C, using Adabas calls to access and modify an Adabas database.

Appendix D lists the example files provided in the Adabas kit.