NCL File Processing › Work with Files › Specify the File Processing Mode

Specify the File Processing Mode

The &FILE statement has a mandatory ID=file_id operand. This operand identifies the UDB on which the NCL verb acts. The ID operand enables several files to be open and processed simultaneously. You specify a FORMAT operand with the OPEN or SET operands (that is, &FILE OPEN ID=... FORMAT=... and &FILE SET ID=... FORMAT=...). The FORMAT operand is used to specify the current processing mode for a file (delimited, unmapped, or mapped). You can switch between two file formats without losing position.