General Information

Sequence priority controls the order in which rules are scanned. When Control-M/Tape searches for a rule, the first rule that matches the selection criteria is activated. Therefore, the sort order of the rules in the currently active rule table is extremely important.

A Rule list is either sorted or unsorted, based on the value specified in the AUTOMATIC RULE SORTING field on the Rule Definition entry panel.

• If AUTOMATIC RULE SORTING is set to N (No), rules are listed in the order in which they were defined, and SEQUENCE PRIORITY has no effect on the order of the rules.
• If AUTOMATIC RULE SORTING is set to Y (Yes), rules are listed in Best Match order.

This order is described in Best Match Order. According to this order:

• The rule with the highest SEQUENCE PRIORITY is placed at the top of the list.
• The rule with the lowest SEQUENCE PRIORITY is placed at the bottom of the list.
• Rules with the same SEQUENCE PRIORITY are sorted according to their selection criteria.