Ordinary Layouts

An ordinary layout is a COBOL or PL/I record definition, the kind you would define in a copy member to be compiled with your COBOL or PL/I application program. Use an ordinary record layout wherever CA File Master Plus supports the use or record layouts to map your record data, including the following activities:

Browsing or editing a file using single-record or multi-record formatted display mode
Printing data from any online or batch function
Reformatting file data using the Reformat (Option 3.11) function
Generating record selection criteria using the Filter (Option 5) function
Using dynamic selection criteria for use with any online or batch function
Defining a custom record layout using the Layout (Option 6) function

When using an ordinary COBOL or PL/I record layout with any CA File Master Plus function, the Layout Dataset always refers to the library in which the copy member containing your COBOL or PL/I record layout resides. The library can be a partitioned data set or a CA Librarian or CA Panvalet library. The Layout Member always refers to the copy member containing your COBOL or PL/I record layout.

Ordinary layouts cannot contain procedural statements or other program source statements. To map file data using a record layout embedded in a multi-layout copy member or source program, you must define a custom record layout.

Because an ordinary layout member contains only one record layout, use the same field definitions to format each file record. If your file contains more than one type of data record and requires more than one record layout, you must define a custom record layout.