Examples of Using POSITION

siteid  POSITION (*) SMALLINT 
siteloc POSITION (*) INTEGER 

If these were the first two column specifications, then siteid would begin in column 1, and siteloc would begin in the column immediately following.

ename  POSITION (1:20)  CHAR 
empno  POSITION (22-26) INTEGER EXTERNAL 
allow  POSITION (*+2)   INTEGER EXTERNAL TERMINATED BY "/" 

Column ename is character data in positions 1 through 20, followed by column empno, which is presumably numeric data in columns 22 through 26. Column allow is offset from the next position (27) after the end of empno by +2, so it starts in column 29 and continues until a slash is encountered.