NCL File Processing › UDB File Formats › Unmapped Format Files

Unmapped Format Files

NCL can also be used to process records from VSAM files for which no map is available.

Unmapped mode processing is generally used in applications where UDBs created or used by NCL procedures are to be processed offline by other systems.

NCL file processing statements allow the NCL user to indicate that a particular UDB is to be processed in unmapped mode, causing NCL to bypass any attempt to identify individual fields within records read from or written to the file.

While still allowing all the simplicity of access to the file, unmapped mode processing means the NCL user must know the structure of records on the file. Consequently more attention must be paid to this aspect of file processing than is the case for the simpler delimited format files.