Body section record formats

Within the body section, any records that are printed are presented in one of four basic ways, depending on the type of comparison (record or formatted) and whether the “wide listing” option is selected. Variations on the basic layouts are created if the “show hex chars” or “highlight changes” options are selected.

Narrow record report

This report is produced when the “record” Comparison Option is selected but the “wide listing” Listing Option is not selected.

The width of the report is restricted to 132 characters, with long records being split over several lines. For matching records, only the “New” record is reported. For paired insertions and deletions and changed records, the “New” record is reported first, followed by the “Old” record. For unpaired insertions and deletions, the “orphaned” record is reported. When both the “New” and “Old” record must be split, the record sections are interspersed so that corresponding bytes remain vertically adjacent.

This format is useful if you need to print the comparison report.

Wide record report

This report is produced when both the “record” Comparison Option and the “wide listing” Listing Option are selected.

The report uses the full width of the File Manager list data set. Matching and non-matching records are reported or suppressed in the same way as for the narrow record report.

This format is generally easier to analyze than the narrow record report if you only want to review the report online.

Narrow formatted report

This report (also referred to as “single” format) is produced when the “formatted” Comparison Option is selected but the “wide listing” Listing Option is not selected.

The width of the report is restricted to 132 characters, split vertically to display fields from the “Old” and “New” data sets. Fields from the “New” data set are placed on the left side of the report, and fields from the “Old” data set are placed on the right side.

For matching records, only the “New” record fields are reported, but the “Old” record number is still reported on the right to help distinguish matching records from unpaired insertions. For paired insertions and deletions and changed records, fields from both records are reported. For unpaired insertions and deletions, the fields from the "orphaned" record are reported and the other half of the report is left blank.

This format is useful if you need to print the comparison report.

Wide formatted report

This report (also referred to as "table" format) is produced when both the “formatted” Comparison Option and the “wide listing” Listing Option are selected.

Like the wide record report, it uses the full width of the File Manager list data set, with each field formatted across the width of the report. The formatting of the fields is adjusted from normal print formatting so that the “Old” and “New” data can be vertically aligned as best as is possible for the mapped fields.

This format is generally easier to analyze than the narrow formatted report if you only want to review the report online.