The parameter archIdent can be defined by one of the following ways:

1. A column of a local variable of the „typed ALIAS“ type
   Example:
   ALIAS (structure definition) _lAT
   SET _lAT AS SV.Struct
   GETARCHCOL _lAT[0]^Item1 , ...
   
   Individual read requests are ALWAYS addressed to items in a given column of the structure SV.Struct (even if the column contains items of Object type).
    
2. A column of an object of the Structured variable type
   Example:
   GETARCHCOL SV.Struct[0]^Item2 , ...
   
   Request addressing is the same as described in article 1.
    
3. A column of a local variable of the Record type
   Example:
   RECORD (structure definition) _lRec
   REDIM _lRec[3]
   
   SET _lRec[1]^Item2 AS Sec
   SET _lRec[2]^Item2 AS SysTime
   SET _lRec[3]^Item2 AS M.MeranyBod
   .....
   
   GETARCHCOL _lRec[0]^Item2, ...
   
   The column must be of the Object type. Individual read requests are to be addressed to the objects the column items refer to.
   If any item doesn't refer to object, the action is to be terminated and returns the ERR_NO_ASSIGNED_ALIAS error.
    
4. A column of structured historical value
   Example:
   GETARCHCOL H.Struct[0]^Item2, ...
   
   Individual read requests are gradually addressed to all items in given column. The object H.Struct cannot be a one-column historical value.
    
5. One-column historical value
   Example:
   GETARCHCOL H.Struct, ...
   
   Individual read requests are to be gradually addressed to all items.
    

The read result is stored in the local structured variable defined by the parameter _locRecDstIdent. The result of every request is either one value or a sequence of values. Every sequence of values is stored in the local variable _locRecDstIdent:

• in rows (analogous to the action GETARCHROW) - the first column contains the values obtained by the read request of the first row (respective column), the second column contains the values obtained by the read request of the first row, .... Structured variable _locRecDstIdent must be of correct size (it must have at least as many columns as are historical values to be read). The action automatically changes its dimension (number of row) according to the number of values read from the archive.
  
  
• in columns - every sequence of values is written into one row of the local variable _locRecDstIdent. If some of the sequences contain more values than the number of columns, the variable statusIdent_Int gets the value of _ERR_MORE_DATA, but the values that could be written will be inserted into the local variable _locRecDstIdent.

The value of parameter archivInstance_Int defines the instance of the archive which executes the request. If the parameter is not defined (or the value is 0), the active instance of archive will execute the request.

The variable statusIdent_Int indicates the success of reading the action. If this variable acquires the value _ERR_NO_DATA(22), it means that all archives, which were used when reading, do not contain any data. If at least one of the archives contains data, the action returns _ERR_NO_ERR(0).