Introduction
Acucorp's
users have long been able to use CoSORT for faster
sorting of ACUCOBOL-GT data, as well as for data
type conversion and related transformations. Now
through IRI's membership in Acucorp, Inc.'s Complementary
Technology Program (CTP),
CoSORT supports ACUCOBOL-GT 's Vision indexed file
format and a drop-in sort replacement is on the
way.
Specifically,
CoSORT's Sort Control Language (SortCL)
program and sortcl_routine() call can:
•
Collate (sort) Vision files
• Convert a Vision file to another output (file)
format
• Create a Vision file from input in another format
• Combine operations in the same pass.
Each
of these formatting and manipulation functions can
occur with or without processing other file formats
simultaneously.
Supplementary
Description
The
CoSORT manual contains sample COBOL calls to CoSORT's
standalone utilities and developer libraries (APIs),
as well as a COBOL data type list for Acucorp users
to reference in sortation and collation operations.
In
addition, and particularly for Vision file users,
the manual details the use of SortCL's /PROCESS=VISION
command for specifying input or output files in
the format. By way of example, consider the human-readable
version of this Vision input file -- as displayed
through the extract option of ACUCOBOL-GT's 'vutil'
tool --
Bush|George
H.W.|1989-1993|REP|TX
Adams|John|1797-1801|FED|MA
Buchanan|James|1857-1861|DEM|PA
Arthur|Chester A.|1881-1885|REP|VT
Adams|John Quincy|1825-1829|D-R|MA
Carter|James E.|1977-1981|DEM|GA |
A
SortCL job specification file would contain its
layout:
/INFILE=chiefs_sep
/PROCESS=VISION
/FIELD=(lname, POSITION=1, SEPARATOR='|')
/FIELD=(fname, POS=2, SEP='|')
/FIELD=(years, POS=3, SEP='|')
/FIELD=(party, POS=4, SEP='|')
/FIELD=(state, POS=5, SEP='|')
/SORT
/KEY=lnme
/INCOLLECT=6
/OUTFILE=chiefs_sep.out
/PROCESS=RECORD
/FIELD=(lname, POS=1, SEP='|')
/FIELD=(fname,
POS=2, SEP='|')
/FIELD=(years, POS=3, SEP='|')
/FIELD=(party, POS=4, SEP='|')
/FIELD=(state, POS=5, SEP='|')
|
The
above job takes the first 6 records from the Vision
file (as displayed above), sorts themin first name
order, and converts the file to standard sequential
file format:
Adams|John
Quincy|1825-1829|D-R|MA
Adams|John|1797-1801|FED|MA
Arthur|Chester A.|1881-1885|REP|VT
Buchanan|James|1857-1861|DEM|PA
Bush|George H.W.|1989-1993|REP|TX
Carter|James E.|1977-1981|DEM|GA |
Reversing
the /PROCESS (i.e. specifying Vision on output and
nothing or Record on input) statements would create
a (non-human-readable) Vision file from a sequential
file. After data has been converted to Vision format,
you can use the utility vutil32.exe (or vutil) to
view, or display information about, the converted
file.
Note
that SortCL supports many different process types,
including: Record and Line Sequential; Micro Focus
Variable Length; Unisys Variable Blocked format;
CSV, CLF, ELF, and VSAM (via
Sun's MRP). You can convert to and from any
of these file types in the same operation.
Platform
Availability
CoSORT's
SortCL language and API both run on ALL commercially
available UNIX and Windows hardware. Click
here for the list of supported systems.
Licensing
and Support
To
exploit CoSORT Vision file processing, you must
obtain a license file (.vlc) from your Acucorp agent,
rename it sortcl.vlc, and have it in the same directory
as a new SortCL executable, which is created by
linking CoSORT's sortcl_vis library with the ACUCOBOL-GT
libraries on your machine. Contact your IRI agent
if you require the sortcl_vis library and/ora UNIX
makefile.
CoSORT
is available for evaluation (free) and licensing
(perpetual use, machine-dependent price points)
from any IRI agent. Click
here to request information.
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