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.