Hi

I want to compare two sequential files and write the output to a third file.Could anyone help to do this in focus.

cheers
lumen

Sure, MATCH FILE will do it, but what are you trying to accomplish. Is there a quasi key that we can compare or are you only syaing are they an exact match. If that's so, then there might be other utilities that would be better. ARe you trying to get out a report of only the mis-matches, etc.

There are a few ways to do what you are trying to do. One such method is to use both MATCH and MODIFY. You could use match to compare both files (assuming of course that you have masters describing both files) and then HOLD FORMAT ALPHA.

Using this HOLD file, you could then issue the MODIFY with a FIXFORM to load a third file and update the field as required.

Of course, this all depends on what you are trying to do. What type of condition are you checking? What are you updating in the third file based on the matched records? Are the records of interest in both of the first and second files? What happens if a record doesn't match? Is it tossed?

Ken

This message has been edited. Last edited by: k.lane,