Data File Types

You can create or specify many types of data files:

Micro Focus Format
The Micro Focus format supports four file organizations:
  • Indexed Sequential
  • Line Sequential
  • Relative
  • Sequential
IDXFORMAT(4)
Standard IDX format 4 files.
IDXFORMAT(8) or IDXFORMAT(12)
The Data File Editor supports IDX format 8 and format 12 indexed files that are larger than 2GB on operating systems that can deal with files of that size; however, support is limited to 2.1 billion records per data file, and is available for unstriped files only.
CAUTION:
Using the Data File Editor on a stripe of a striped file could cause data corruption.

When you specify a data file that uses the IDXFORMAT(8) or IDXFORMAT(12) formats, you must set the FILEMAXSIZE parameter in the File Handler configuration file, extfh.cfg, to FILEMAXSIZE=8 to enable locking, to accommodate the necessary 25 bytes of virtual memory needed per sequential record, and to accommodate both the data and the index of an IDXFORMAT(8) or IDXFORMAT(12) file. For more information about the extfh.cfg file, see File Handler Configuration.

Note: Data File Editor locking behavior prevents other programs from accessing a data file that is open for editing in Data File Editor. If the data file is locked, Data File Editor prompts to try and open the file read only. This does not apply when Open read only configuration option is checked.