Record Element Type (RET): A RET is user recognizable sub group of data elements within an ILF or an EIF. It is best to look at logical groupings of data to help identify them. The concept of RET will be discussed in detail in the chapters that discuss internal logical file and external interface files.
File Type Referenced (FTR): A FTR is a file type referenced by a transaction. An FTR must also be an internal logical file or external interface file.
Data Element Type (DET): A DET is a unique user recognizable, non-recursive (non-repetitive) field. A DET is information that is dynamic and not static. A dynamic field is read from a file or created from DETs contained in a FTR. Additionally, a DET can invoke transactions or can be additional information regarding transactions. If a DET is recursive then only the first occurrence of the DET is considered not every occurrence.
A data element can be either quantitative or qualitative. A quantitative data element is data in numerical form. A qualitative data element is data not in numerical form, but is in the form of text, photographs, sound bytes and so on.
Understanding the FTRs and DETs helped distinguish one transaction from another transactions. This concept will be discussed in detail later in this book.