Cursors allow you to reference data from datastores other than the primary source input datastore. SQData supports relational, VSAM, and IMS cursor objects, depending on the type of data that you need to access during Apply Engine processing.
Use CREATE RDBMS CURSOR for SQL-based relational lookup and update access, CREATE VSAM CURSOR for keyed VSAM lookup and retrieval access, and CREATE IMS CURSOR for IMS segment lookup and retrieval access. Cursor processing is performed through the SQData runtime functions OPEN, FETCH, CLOSE, and FOREACH.
With cursors, you can perform operations such as:
- Translating field values from code files or tables.
- Retrieving related data from other datastores.
- Performing validation of field values prior to mapping them to target fields.
- Substitution of field values based on a correlating value from another datastore.