A.1.3 Designating a Database

Use the configuration variable DEFAULT-HOST to establish Informix as your file system:

DEFAULT-HOST  informix

Next, select the particular Informix database to be accessed by your COBOL application. Identify this database to the runtime system via the configuration variable DATABASE:

DATABASE  database-name

The database you choose might be one that has been in use at the site for some time, and already contains data, or it might be a new, blank database that has just been created and named.

Note: The Acu4GL product for Informix allows you to create a file with an OPEN OUTPUT statement, just as you can create Vision indexed files. The Informix equivalent of a Vision file is a table, not a database. You need to have a pre-existing database for your Informix tables, just as you need to have a pre-existing directory for Vision files.

To create a new, blank database, use the tools available from Informix.