Introduction Visual COBOL provides two file handlers containing built-in file handling capabilities for all types of file organization.
File Organizations
This chapter describes the file organizations supported by your COBOL system.
Filenames
This chapter covers information about file names and their usage, and includes details of the search sequence employed by the run-time system to find dynamically or externally assigned files.
File Status
File status codes are used by this COBOL system to indicate the success, or otherwise, of any file operation carried out by your program.
Sharing Files
This chapter explains how to prevent more than one user from changing the same data at the same time in a multi-user environment through the use of file and record locks.
File Handler Configuration
Certain aspects of the File Handler's behavior can be configured. You can alter these aspects by entering values in the File Handler configuration file, by setting run-time switches, or by setting environment variables.
File Handler and Sort APIs
This chapter shows you how to make explicit calls to the File Handler and the Sort Module from your program.
Sort Utilities Visual COBOL provides MFSORT, a command line sort and merge utility.
Data and Key Compression
Records and keys in files created using the File Handler can be compressed so they take up less physical disk space. You can enable data compression by using the File Handler to call compression routines from your program.
Tracing File Operations
Use the tracing file operations, which are provided to help in investigations into problems with file handling.
