record-name

       Is the given name, full dictionary path name, or relative
       dictionary path name of the record being defined. The record
       path name cannot resolve to the full dictionary path name of any
       other object or directory in the data dictionary system. DEFINE
       RECORD will accept both DMU and CDO style path names.

    [USING] OPTIMIZE

       Allows you to optimize record definitions, reducing the central
       processing unit (CPU) time needed to ready a domain that
       refers to the record. See the Usage Notes section for special
       considerations.

                  { MAJOR-MINOR         }
    ALLOCATION IS { ALIGNED-MAJOR-MINOR }
                  { LEFT-RIGHT          }

       Specifies the type of word-boundary alignment DEC DATATRIEVE uses
       when storing records in the data file. It also controls the way
       DEC DATATRIEVE retrieves data from data files created by user
       programs or other application software. The default allocation
       is no alignment. See the DEC COBOL[TM] documentation set for more
       information on word-boundary alignment and allocation of fill
       bytes.

    definition

       Is the description of the fields in the record. Each definition
       has one of the following formats:

         level-number-1  field-name-1.
         level-number-2  field-name-2  field-definition-2.
         [level-number-n  field-name-n  field-definition-n.]
               .        .        .
               .        .        .
               .        .        .

       or

                                {FIELD  }
         level-number-n  FROM   {GROUP  }  path-name.
                                {       }

    level-number

       Is the level number for the field in the record definition. It
       indicates the relationship of the field to the other fields in
       the record definition.

    field-name

       Is the name of the field. Every field must have a name. The
       keyword FILLER is a special field name that can be repeated at
       the same level in the record definition.

    field-definition

       Is a field definition. A record definition must contain at least
       one field definition. Elementary fields must have at least one
       field definition clause, but group fields are not required to
       have any field definition clauses.

       Each field definition must end with a period (.).

    FROM

       Allows you to create a definition using fields imported from CDO
       field/record definitions.

    FIELD

       Specifies that you are referencing an existing CDO field.

    GROUP

       Specifies that you are referencing an existing CDO group field.

    path-name

       Specifies the path name of the field or record referenced by a
       FROM field. The record or field specified by this path name must
       reside in a CDO format dictionary.

    ; (semicolon)

       Ends the record definition.