LCHILD segment type format

The IMS catalog LCHILD segment type contains information about a relationship between segment types.

Segment name
LCHILD
Parent name
SEGM
Sequence field
LCHLDSEQ
Segment length
72 bytes
Table 1. LCHILD segment map
Offset (bytes) Length (bytes) Data type Field name Description Unique key field
1 2 X LEN Length of this segment  
3 2 X CTL Control field  
5 2 X LCHLDSEQ Sequence field, type = U X
  5 2 X SEQNUM Sequence number  
9 8 C IMSNAME Name of the segment type that is associated with the parent segment type in this logical relationship  
17 8 C DBNAME Name of the database that contains the segment identified by the IMSNAME field  
25 4 C PTR Identifies the type of pointer used in this logical relationship:
SNGL
Indicates that a logical child first pointer field is reserved in the parent segment type. This field is used in one of three ways:
  • For a logical parent relationship, the pointer field contains a direct address pointer to the first occurrence of a logical child segment type.
  • For a HIDAM primary index database relationship, the pointer field contains a direct address pointer to a HIDAM root database segment.
  • For a secondary index relationship, the pointer field contains a direct address pointer to an index target segment.
DBLE
Indicates that two 4-byte pointer fields are reserved in the logical parent segment type. The first pointer field contains the address of the first occurrence of the logical child segment type, and the second pointer field contains the address of the last occurrence of the logical child segment type.
NONE
No pointer fields are reserved in the logical parent segment type. The relationship between the logical parent and logical child is either not implemented or is maintained with physically paired segments.
INDX
For the first logical child relationship in a HIDAM database, this value indicates that the parent segment is the root segment type in a HIDAM database and the target segment is the root segment of the primary index for the database. For subsequent logical child relationships in a HIDAM database and for other databases, this value indicates that the target segment type is a secondary index target for this database.
SYMB
This value indicates that the pointer field in the primary database does not contain direct target addresses to the target segments in the secondary index database. Instead, the pointer field contains the concatenated key of the target segment. In a secondary index database, this value indicates that no space is reserved in the index pointer segments for the address of the target segment.
 
29 8 C PAIR Name of the segment paired with the segment identified in the IMSNAME field in a bidirectional logical relationship  
37 8 C INDEX The name of the sequence field of the root segment type of the HIDAM database that this database is the primary index for. This field contains data only if this database is the primary index for a HIDAM database.  
45 5 C RULES Indicates how virtual logical child segments are sequenced during a DL/I insert operation when they do not include a sequence field or use a non-unique sequence field:
FIRST
If no sequence field exists, new segment instances are inserted before the first existing instance of the logical child. If a non-unique sequence field exists, new segment instances are inserted before all existing instances that have the same key value as the new instance.
LAST
If no sequence field exists, new segment instances are inserted after the last existing instance of the logical child. If a non-unique sequence field exists, new segment instances are inserted after all existing instances with the same key value as the new instance.
HERE
The new instance is inserted at the location of the cursor after the last DL/I call. If there is no current position, FIRST is used instead.
 
50 1 C MULTI Indicates whether the LCHILD statement is a member of a multiple secondary index segment group  
51 2 C FILLER01 Reserved  
53 4 X RKSIZE The root key size of the target databases. This field is only used for partitioned secondary index databases.  
57 16 C FILLER02 Reserved