Describing the structure of a line-sequential file

Code the logical size in bytes of the records by using the RECORD clause. Line-sequential files are stream files. Because of their character-oriented nature, the physical records are of variable length.

The following examples show how the FD entry might look for a line-sequential file:

With fixed-length records:

FILE SECTION.
FD  COMMUTER-FILE
    RECORD CONTAINS 80 CHARACTERS.
01  COMMUTER-RECORD.
    05  COMMUTER-NUMBER        PIC  X(16).
    05  COMMUTER-DESCRIPTION   PIC  X(64).

With variable-length records:

FILE SECTION.
FD  COMMUTER-FILE
    RECORD VARYING FROM 16 TO 80 CHARACTERS.
01  COMMUTER-RECORD.
    05  COMMUTER-NUMBER        PIC  X(16).
    05  COMMUTER-DESCRIPTION   PIC  X(64).

If you code the same fixed size and no OCCURS DEPENDING ON clause for any level-01 record description entries associated with the file, that fixed size is the logical record length. However, because blanks at the end of a record are not written to the file, the physical records might be of varying lengths.