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A descriptor string is stored in the zero subscript of the file's global root-^EMP( in our example. This is simply an ^-piece-delimited string containing the following:
| piece 1 |
file name |
| piece 2 |
file number with file characteristics codes |
| piece 3 |
most recently assigned internal entry number |
| piece 4 |
current total number of entries |
NOTE: The most recently assigned number is not necessarily the largest entry number. The file number is the record number of the file in the attribute (or data) dictionary that describes the data fields for this file. Thus, if a file has three employees and if the file's most recently added employee was assigned entry number 9, we have:
^EMP(0)="EMPLOYEE^3I^9^3"
The data dictionary number (second ^-piece) may also be followed by a string of alphabetic characters that are used by VA FileMan as flags to indicate various characteristics of the file. This string may contain the following:
| D | .01 field of the file is a Date/Time. |
| P | .01 field of the file is a Pointer to another file. |
| S | .01 field of the file is a Set of Codes. |
| V | .01 field of the file is a Variable Pointer. |
| A | Automatically adds entries without asking: "ARE YOU ADDING A NEW ENTRY?" |
| I | File has Identifiers. |
| O | The user will be asked "...OK?" whenever a matching entry is found during lookup. |
| s | (lowercase s)-File has a screen defined in ^DD(filenumber,0, "SCR"). |
Reviewed/Updated: March 10, 2007