Structured COBOL Programming

10th edition John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Nancy Stern
Hofstra University
Robert A. Stern
Nassau Community College
James P. Ley
University of Wisconsin-Stout

PowerPoint Winifred J. Rex

Presentation Bowling Green State University 14-1
Chapter 14

Sorting and Merging

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Chapter Objectives
• To familiarize you with
• How files may be sorted
• How to process file during SORT
procedure
– Before it is sorted
– After it is sorted
• How to merge files

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Chapter Contents
• SORT Feature
• Processing Data Before and/or After
Sorting
• MERGE Statement

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SORT Statement
• Common procedure for arranging
records in specific order
• Then sequential batch processing
performed
• Two techniques for sorting
– Use sort utility separate from COBOL
program
– Use COBOL's SORT verb in program

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SORT Statement
Simplified Format

SORT file-name-1
ON ASCENDING KEY data-name-1 …
DESCENDING

USING file-name-2
GIVING file-name-3
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ASCENDING, DESCENDING Key
• To specify sequence for key field
– ASCENDING: From lowest to highest
– DESCENDING: From highest to lowest
• Sort key fields may be numeric or
nonnumeric
• Alphanumeric fields sorted according to
collating sequence (ASCII or EBCDIC)
used by computer
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Multiple Sort Keys
• Can sequence records with more than
one key field
• Sort payroll file in ascending alphabetic
sequence by name, within each level,
for each office
– Office number - major sort field
– Level number - intermediate sort field
– Name - minor sort field

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Multiple Sort Keys
• For Office 1, desired sequence is
Office-No Level-No Name
1 1 ADAMS, J. R.
1 1 BROCK, P. T.
1 1 LEE, S.
1 2 ARTHUR, Q. C.
1 2 SHAH, J.
1 3 RAMIREZ, A. P.
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SORT Statement
• Sorts records into ascending name
sequence within level within office
Sort Sort-File
On Ascending Key Office-No
On Ascending Key Level-No
On Ascending Key Name
Using Payroll-File-In
Giving Sort-Payroll-File-Out
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Multiple Sort Keys
• Choose either ASCENDING or
DESCENDING sequence for each key
• If all key fields to be sorted in same
sequence, can condense coding
Example
Sort Sort-File
On Ascending Key Major-Key
Intermediate-Key
Minor-Key
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Duplicate Key Values
• Assume records to be sorted in
descending order by salary
• If both 9th and 24th records in input file
have salary of 30000, which appears first
in sort file?
• Can specify that records with same value
for key field be placed in sort file in same
order that they appear in original input file

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Duplicate Key Example
Sort Sort-File
On Descending Key Srt-Salary
With Duplicates In Order
Using Unsorted-File-In
Giving Sorted-File-Out

• DUPLICATES clause ensures that 9th

record appears before 24th in Sort-File if
both have same Salary value
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Files Used in SORT
• Input file: File of unsorted input records
• Work or sort file: File used to store
records temporarily during sorting
process
• Output file: File of sorted output records

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Files Used in SORT
• All defined using standard SELECT …
ASSIGN entries
• All must have same record format
• All are opened and closed automatically
by SORT

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Files Used in SORT
• Input and output file described with FD
entries
• Sort work file
– Described with SD entry (sort file
descriptor)
– Temporary file used only during sorting but
not saved
– Sort key fields must be described as part of
sort record format
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Sample FILE SECTION
Data Division.
File Section.
FD Unsorted-File-In.
01 Unsorted-Rec-In.
05 Name-In Pic X(20).
05 Salary-In Pic 9(6).

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Sample FILE SECTION
SD Sort-File.
01 Sort-Rec.
05 Srt-Name Pic X(20).
05 Srt-SalaryPic 9(6).
FD Sorted-File-Out.
01 Sorted-Rec-Out.
05 Name-Out Pic X(20).
05 Salary-Out Pic 9(6).
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Operations Performed by SORT
• Opens all three files
• Moves all records from Unsorted-File-In
to Sort-File
• Sorts records in Sort-File in descending
sequence by Srt-Salary
• Moves all records from Sort-File to
Unsorted-File-Out
• Closes all three files
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INPUT PROCEDURE
• Use in place of USING clause to
process data from input file prior to
sorting
• Assume only records with Salary-In <
75000 need to be sorted
• Use Input Procedure to process and
select desired records before sorting

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SORT with INPUT PROCEDURE
Sort Sort-File
On Descending Key Srt-Salary
Input Procedure Select-Records
Giving Sorted-File-Out

• Select-Records is name of paragraph

written by programmer to process
records before sorting
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INPUT PROCEDURE
Select-Records paragraph must
• Open input file (Unsorted-File-In)
• Perform processing of input records
until there is no more data
• Close input file

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Processing Input Records
• For each input record, if Salary-In <
75000
– Move input data to sort record
– RELEASE record to sort file
• When INPUT PROCEDURE paragraph
is completed, control returns to SORT
• All records released to sort file are
sorted
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RELEASE Statement
Format

RELEASE sort-record-name-1
[FROM identifier-1]

• To write a record to the sort file

• Like WRITE but used to output sort
records

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INPUT PROCEDURE
May be used to
• Validate data in input records
• Process only records that meet certain
criteria
• Eliminate records with blank fields
• Remove unneeded fields from input
records
• Count input records
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OUTPUT PROCEDURE
• With GIVING option, records in sort file
automatically written to output file after
sorting
• Use OUTPUT PROCEDURE to process
sorted records prior to, or instead of,
placing them in output file

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SORT Statement Format
SORT file-name-1
ON ASCENDING KEY data-name-1 … …
DESCENDING

INPUT PROCEDURE IS procedure-name-1

USING file-name-2 …

OUTPUT PROCEDURE IS procedure-name-3

GIVING file-name-3 …
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SORT PROCEDURES
• If INPUT PROCEDURE used
– SORT transfers control to paragraph or
section named in INPUT PROCEDURE
– When complete, sort file is sorted
• If OUTPUT PROCEDURE used
– SORT transfers control to paragraph or
section named in OUTPUT PROCEDURE
– Processes all sorted records in sort file and
handles transfer of records to output file
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SORT PROCEDURES
• In INPUT PROCEDURE, records
RELEASEd to sort file
• In OUTPUT PROCEDURE, records
RETURNed from sort file

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RETURN Statement
Format

RETURN sort-file-name-1
AT END imperative statement-1
[ NOT AT END imperative statement-2]
[END-RETURN]

• To retrieve records from the sort file

• Similar to READ
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OUTPUT PROCEDURE Steps
Paragraph (or section) must
• Open output file
• Perform paragraph to RETURN and
process records from sort file until there
is no more data
• Close output file
• When OUTPUT PROCEDURE finished,
control returns to SORT
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Processing Sorted Records
After records sorted but before they are
created as output
• Perform any operations on sort records
• MOVE sort record to output area
• WRITE each sort record to output file

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SORT Procedures
• Both INPUT and OUTPUT
PROCEDUREs can be used in same
program
• If used, programmer must open/close
the input or output file
• SD (sort) file and files specified with
USING or GIVING are automatically
opened and closed
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When to use PROCEDUREs
• More efficient to use INPUT
PROCEDURE if many records in input
file can be eliminated before sort
• Use OUTPUT PROCEDURE if records
require further processing after sort
• Must use procedure if input or output file
and sorted file have different-sized
fields or fields in different order
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SORT Options Review
Option: USING
GIVING
Result:
• File is sorted
• No special handling

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SORT Options Review
Option: INPUT PROCEDURE
GIVING
Result:
• Processes unsorted input records before
they are sorted
• Write records to sort file with RELEASE
• After INPUT PROCEDURE completed,
records are sorted
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SORT Options Review
Option: USING
OUTPUT PROCEDURE
Result:
• Processes records after they have been
sorted but before they are written to
output file
• Read records from sort file with
RETURN
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SORT Options Review
Option: INPUT PROCEDURE
OUTPUT PROCEDURE
Result:
• Processes data both before and after it
is sorted

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MERGE Statement
• To combine two or more files into one
• Files to be merged must each be in
sequence by key field
• Format similar to SORT, rules for
clauses are same

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MERGE Statement Format
MERGE file-name-1
ON ASCENDING KEY data-name-1 … …
DESCENDING
USING file-name-2 file-name-3 …

OUTPUT PROCEDURE IS procedure-name-1

GIVING file-name-4 …

• To combine two or more files into one

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MERGE Statement
• File-name-1 is work file designated as
an SD
• Keys specified are defined within SD
• Data-name-1 is major key, may be
followed by intermediate and minor keys
• USING clause names file to be merged
– At least two must be included

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MERGE Statement
• Records may be processed after
merging with OUTPUT PROCEDURE,
but not before
• Automatically handles opening, closing,
and input/output associated with files

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MERGE Statement Example
• Suppose two separate files of
employees are to be combined into one
• Both input files and the resulting output
file contain 80 characters with an Emp-
No in the first nine positions
• File definitions and MERGE instruction
follow

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MERGE Statement Example
Data Division.
File Section.
FD Emp-File-1.
01 Emp-Rec-1 Pic X(80).

FD Emp-File-2.
01 Emp-Rec-2 Pic X(80).
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MERGE Statement Example
SD Merge-File.
• 01 Merge-Rec.
• 05 Mrg-Emp-No Pic X(9).
• 05 Rest-of-Rec Pic X(71).

FD Out-Emp-File.
01 Out-Emp-Rec Pic X(80).
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MERGE Statement Example
Procedure Division.
100-Main-Module.
Merge Merge-File
On Ascending Key Mrg-Emp-No
Using Emp-File-1, Emp-File-2
Giving Out-Emp-File
Stop Run.
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Chapter Summary
• SORT used for sorting records in either
ascending or descending order
• SORT uses work or sort file described
with an SD
• Key fields to be sorted are data-names
defined within SD or sort file
• Files may be sorted using more than
one key field
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Chapter Summary
• Routines separate from SORT may be
used to
– Process unsorted file prior to SORT
– Process sorted file after SORT

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Chapter Summary
• Procedures that are part of SORT
permit processing
– Just before sort performed (INPUT
PROCEDURE)
– After sort finished but before writing
records to sorted file (OUTPUT
PROCEDURE)

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Chapter Summary
• RELEASE statement used in INPUT
PROCEDURE to make input records
available for sorting
• RETURN statement used in OUTPUT
PROCEDURE to read records from sort
file

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Chapter Summary
• MERGE statement used to merge two
or more files into one

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