Data access

•	Fixed-length sequential and relative files created by Micro Focus programs are directly usable by isCOBOL programs.

•	To manage variable-length sequential files, add the following entry to the configuration:

iscobol.file.sequential=mfsequential

•	To manage line sequential files that might contain 0x0A in the record due to COMP fields, add the following entry to the configuration:

iscobol.file.linesequential=lseqmf_n

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Variable-length relative files must be converted to fixed-length relative files as isCOBOL doesn’t support variable-length relative files. This kind of conversion can be done through a Micro Focus program that reads from the variable-length file and writes to the fixed-length file using the maximum record size from the input file as the record size of the output file.

•	Indexed MF files are not handled by isCOBOL. They can be easily converted to JIsam or c-tree by ISMIGRATE (Index File Migration) utility. Choose "com.iscobol.io.ScanMF" as input file handler to let ISMIGRATE read Micro Focus files without the need of external components.

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•	By default, isCOBOL returns ANSI 2002 file status codes. In order to have the same Micro Focus file status code, add the following setting to the configuration:

iscobol.file.status=com.iscobol.io.FileStatusMF

•	The file status "30" is returned when you you try to create a file where there are no write permissions. Micro Focus returns "37" instead.