Comparing files

The File-AID Compare function compares any two similar files and produces reports showing any differences. Special features let you use existing keys or your own sort fields to synchronize the files. You can also supply record layouts to the Compare function that can be used for:

  • Reporting differences field by field
  • Specifying certain fields to be excluded from the compare
  • Specifying sync keys using field names.

You may optionally use standard File-AID selection criteria to select only a subset of records to be compared. Other features let you control the format and level of results reporting and to limit the number of records compared or the number of differences to report.

Like many other File-AID utilities, you can specify online or batch processing of your compare.

Unicode (UTF-8 and UTF-16) considerations

The Compare function accepts layouts including UTF-8, NATIONAL and/or NATIONAL Numeric fields. However, these fields are treated as Character and the Compare Report does not print Unicode data with Unicode Conversion.

This section provides information about the following topics:

 

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