A data file (not a database table) that contains information on new customers might look like i-datf1.d.

i-datf1.d

This file is in standard ABL format. That is, blanks separate the field values. Field values that contain embedded blanks are surrounded by quotation marks (" "). See Convertingnonstandard input files for information on using alternate formats.

You can write an ABL procedure and tell that procedure to get its input from the i-datf1.d file, as shown in the following figure.

The SET statement, which normally gets its input from the terminal, gets its input from the i-datf1.d file. The cust–num field uses the first data item, 90. The name field uses the next quoted data item, "Wind Chill Hockey," etc. Each time ABL processes a data entry statement, it reads one line from the file.