Use the Data Dictionary or Data Administration tool to dump ABL (Advanced Business Language) database definitions. There are two ways to dump the database definitions:

• Dump the entire database, including all its tables and fields
• Dump individual tables, sequences, or auto-connect records

Whenever you run the dump utility to dump table definitions, the Data Dictionary or Data Administration tool creates a data definitions (.df) file that contains definitions of tables, fields, indexes, sequences, and auto-connect records, and all their characteristics. However, depending on whether you choose to dump all tables or only selected tables when you dump the definitions, the Data Dictionary or Data Administration tool might or might not write all definitions to the .df file.

The table below shows the definitions that are dumped in each case.

Table 1. Definitions dumped to the definition file

Definitions	All tables	Selected tables
Tables, fields, and indexes	Yes	Yes
Sequence definitions	Yes	No
Auto-connect records	Yes	No
Collation	No	No
_User	No	No

If you dump individual tables, you must also dump the sequence definitions and auto-connect records separately. See Dumping sequence definitions and Dumping auto-connect records for instructions.