Accessing Auxiliary Storage: FILE › FILE Work Area

FILE Work Area

FILE keeps record or segment data in its own work area when performing an I/O operation. An input operation, such as a READ, places the requested data record or segment in FILE's work area and displays it on the screen.

Consider the following operations when working with the FILE work area:

• A successful input operation overwrites data currently in the work area.
• A successful output operation leaves all data in the work area intact. Reuse the contents of the work area for any number of consecutive output operations without having to reacquire the same data.
• Changing data in the work area does not affect the contents of the accessed data structure (file, database, temporary storage, transient data) until a successful output operation is performed.
• The contents of the work area can exceed the display capacity of the terminal screen. Display any portion of the work area by entering the location in the LOC field or using PF keys. For a complete description of the LOC field, see Dump Format later in this chapter.