3 1 File Naming Conventions

3.1 File Naming Conventions

A suggested naming standard for files in the data dictionary is:

	For In-House Development	For Package Development
Physical:	XXXXXX	PPXXXX
Logical:	XXXXXXnn	PPXXXXnn

 

Where these points apply:

• File names should be no longer than eight characters.

• File names should not contain a "#" (hash/number) symbol or an "@" (at) symbol.

• The XXXXXX / PPXXXX part of the physical or logical file name should be exactly six characters in length and as meaningful as possible, given the size limitations.
  
  The nn portion should be a two digit number assigned sequentially to each file. For example:

    In house development:

CUSTMR Customer file PRODCT Product master file PRODCT01 Products in category order PRODCT02 Products in class/category order ITEMLN Item lines file SALESH Sales history file SALESH01 Sales history by customer SALESH02 Sales history by product SALESH03 Sales history by month/customer

 

   Package development:

OECSMF Customer file OEPRMF Product master file OEPRMF01 Products in category order OEPRMF02 Products in class/category order OEITLN Item lines file MKSHF Sales history file MKSHF01 Sales history by customer MKSHF02 Sales history by product MKSHF03 Sales history by month/customer

 

Note: Avoid the trap of trying to use meaningful logical file names (i.e., attempting to make the name reflect the order of the keys in some way). This is practically impossible to achieve consistently across any reasonable number of file definitions.

We recommend the method of just numbering the files sequentially, as at least this ensures that logical file names reflect the physical files on which they are based. If you wish, put the description of the key order into the 40 byte file description where it will be visible to users at most times.