I have a FOCEXEC (in mainframe FOCUS) that I now need to modify so it can read an external file (VSAM, I believe). I don't have a master file description for the external file.

Can someone tell me what I need to do to enable my FOCEXEC to read this external file?

Thank you so much in advance....

This message has been edited. Last edited by: webmeister,

No, not really in my case, but you could create your own master if you had a 'copybook' of the layout of the file, Or have the administrator look into generating the MFD and access file if needed. (or are you the administrator? )

Of course there are other methods, of which someone may have a solution. I know one method used by a person here is to have a MFD with one record definition in it and then uses defines to break up the long alpha element. Not good for large files though.

-READ may be an option, I've never had to use it sad to say.

Thanks Leah,

I got it figured out, by making my own MFD and using it to read the external file.

You have to have an MFD to read an external file. Also, watch out for Occurs clauses. In FOCUS you work through those with ORDER. Or you can just define the multiple occurances with separate names. (FIELD1A, FIELD1B,etc)