You can enhance performance by invoking DFSORT with JCL instead of invoking it from a COBOL or a PL/I program. Generally, COBOL or PL/I is used for convenience. However, the trade-off can be degraded performance. You can improve efficiency by taking advantage of the way DFSORT installation defaults and run-time options can be fine-tuned for optimum performance, especially to make use of control statements that "work together," such as INCLUDE/OMIT, INREC/OUTREC, SUM, and OUTFIL. You can eliminate records from input files, reformat records to eliminate unwanted fields, combine records arithmetically, and create reports, without requiring routines from other programs.