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Fujitsu PowerBSORT for Windows

The table below lists key features and benefits of PowerBSORT.

Note: PowerBSORT V6 is the version that is shipped with NetCOBOL for Windows V10 and NetCOBOL for .NET V4.

New in: Feature Summary Detail of Feature Benefit of Feature
  Sort/Merge/Select/ Sum/Reconstruct files

PowerBSORT provides the following sort and related functions for COBOL, text and binary files:

Sort records by a specified key.

Merge files according to the order specified by a key field.

Copy files from one organization to another.

Select records from files.

Combine two or more records, summing a specified field.

Use input data to create different record structures in the output file.

 You can sort files without having to write special programs.
+V4 Windows interface PowerBSORT has an improved Windows interface so that you can control your sort/merge/copy operations interactively. Achieve your sort/merge results quickly by pointing and clicking.
+V4 Sorts COBOL relative files PowerBSORT can now sort COBOL relative files as well as the other COBOL file formats. You can apply PowerBSORT functions to the full of COBOL file organizations.
  Callable from C PowerBSORT includes subroutines that can be called from C. Enhance your C applications with the functions of PowerBSORT.
  Callable from VB PowerBSORT includes an OCX control so that you can invoke its functions from Visual Basic. Enhance your Visual Basic applications with the functions of PowerBSORT.
V6 Handles CSV, TSV and text files Comma Separated Values (CSV) files, Tab Separated Values (TSV) files, and text files with fields separated by configurable character values are supported. Increases range of files that canbe sorted by PowerBSORT.
V6 FIFO sorting supported For files which contain records with identical key values you can specify that the output order of the records should be the same as the input order (first in first out, or FIFO). Makes output order of records with identical keys predictable.
V6 +0 and -0 can be treated as equal.

Certain types of numeric field will contain different values if they are set to +0 or -0. PowerBSORT gives you the option of treating these values as identical. Field types that can show this behavior:

  • Packed decimal number
    (USAGE PACKED-DECIMAL)
  • External decimal number
    (USAGE DISPLAY)
  • Leading separate signed number (USAGE DISPLAY SIGN LEADING SEPARATE)
  • Trailing separate signed number (USAGE DISPLAY SIGN TRAILING SEPARATE)
  • Leading overpunch signed number (USAGE DISPLAY SIGN LEADING, with no SIGN SEPARATE)
  • Trailing overpunch signed number (USAGE DISPLAY SIGN TRAILING, with no SIGN SEPARATE)
  • Numeric character strings and mixed character and numeric strings definable using PowerBSORT options.
 Usually most applications do not want to treat +0 and -0 as different values so makes the sort operation give the desired results..
V6 Error messages output to event log. Error messages can optionally be output to the system event log. Message date, type and numbers can be output Useful for analyzing problems that occur in production or testing.

"+Vn" in the "New" column indicates a feature that contains new or improved elements as well as existing elements. When "+Vn" is in Italics, it refers to the italicized detail items. The number n indicates the release in which the new feature was introduced.