Sams Teach Yourself COBOL in 24 Hours

Hour 18Master File Updating

Much of business processing is centered on updating a central repository of information. Transactions that are captured from a variety of locations are accumulated and applied to a master file. A typical transaction in your little shop might be a sale transaction. You need to update the dealer master file with this sale to capture the commission that you are to collect for handling the sale. In this hour, you learn the basics of transaction entry and master file update. The following topics are covered:

• Collecting transactional data

• Data validation

• Sequential file updating

• Indexed file updating

Updating a master file requires you to collect transactional data that is as accurate as possible. There is an old ...