The search-criteria contains descriptors and logical operators, according to the type of selection relevant to the application. It may also contain up to 16 softcoupling conditions to connect files which are not physically coupled. One or more spaces may be present between entries.

Generally, the search-criteria is used in creating the Adabas search and value buffers, which are used in the @FIND, @READLOGICAL and @READVALUE execution commands.

The general syntax of the command is as follows:

The descriptor is the full field name as defined in Predict. The field name is restricted to 25 characters. Longer field names are truncated to 25 characters and a warning message is issued. The the name of the field created in the value buffer is prefixed by V and suffixed by nnnn. A non-descriptor field may be used instead of a real descriptor for the @FIND command providing this option is allowed by the database administrator with the NONDE parameter of the @OPTIONS statement. In this case, the field definition in Predict should contain N in the De-type attribute.

The value buffer fields are generated with an initial value of space or 0.

Before a @FIND command, or a first instance of the @READLOGICAL or @READVALUE commands, move their values (except space and 0) into the fields created in the value buffer as specified previously.