.TH vindex "" "" "/rdb Command"
.PC "Create and display ve look-up tables"
\fBvindex \fItable \fB[ \fIkey-column \fB[: \fIdecode-column \fB] ... ]]\fR
.PP
.II "table^validate"
.II "validate table"
The command
.B vindex
creates and displays tables composed of columns in
.B ve
tables.
These tables are used by
.B ve
when validating column entries.
.I table
names the
.B ve
table.
When no options are specified,
.B vindex
displays the contents of all existing column tables associated with
.IR table .
.PP
For each
.IR "key-column" ,
.B vindex
collects the text from that column and stores it in two files;
each is prefixed by the name of the
.I key-column
and is suffixed by
.B \-A
or
.BR \-B .
If the name of the key column
exceeds 14 characters,
the table-name prefix is truncated to 14 characters.
Key column whose names
contain blanks must be surrounded by quotation marks;
blanks are converted to underscores `_' in the table name.
These files are referred to in the fourth column of
.B ve
validation files by the table-name prefix.
.PP
When the colon `:' argument follows a key-column name,
the column name following this argument is assumed to be the name of a
.IR decode-column .
As key-column text is collected in the table, the associated
.B vindex
links the decode-column's text to it as a cross-reference.
.SH Example
The following
.B vindex
command create a look-up table for the key columns
.B Snumber
and
.B State
in table
.BR personnel ;
it also cross-references the information in
.B Snumber
with the text in the decode-column
.BR Employee :
.DM
	vindex personnel "Snumber" : Employee State
.DE
.PP
The resulting tables are named
.B Snumber
and
.BR State .
.SH "See Also"
.B
ve
.R