In COBOL terms there is a WORLD of difference between the 2 types of files,
but some comments (in general).
1) You really should start using the RECORD VARYING IN SIZE rather than the
RECORD CONTAINS n TO m - phrase in your FD. The former is guaranteed to be
a variable format file (all compilers, all settings) - while the latter is
NOT.
2) If you use the RECORD VARYING IN SIZE phrase, you can simply DROP the
RECORD FORMAT IS V phrase which is an IBM extension and not portable to
other compilers.
3) Once you DO use the RECORD VARYING IN SIZE phrase, you can make the ODO
(Occurs Depending On" phrase set to a the field specified in it. This
allows you to properly handle variable format files that do NOT contain
their length field within each record.
***
I am NOT trying to say that your code doesn't work as you say it does, there
simply ARE better ways to code it.
""Steve Arnett"" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> The only difference is the RECORDING MODE IS. For spanned it is S and for
> variable it is V. The 01 level, which the original poster was asking
about
> is the same for both. I guess I should have given this one that I use to
> read the DCOLLECT output:
>
> FD DCOLIN
> BLOCK CONTAINS 0 RECORDS
> RECORD CONTAINS 3 TO 928 CHARACTERS
> RECORDING MODE IS V.
> 01 DCOLIN-REC.
> 02 DCOLIN-REC-LEN PIC S9(2) COMP.
> 02 DCOLIN-VARYABLE.
> 03 DCOL-AREA PIC X(1)
> OCCURS 1 TO 926
> DEPENDING ON DCOLIN-REC-LEN.
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