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Understanding File-AID Compare Results

When you click Run on a File-AID Compare request, a mainframe File-AID/MVS compare is initiated, and the results are transmitted and displayed in File-AID/Eclipse within Topaz Workbench.

Compare results, consisting of Summary and Details views, are presented in a tabbed window titled with the names of the two files compared. Links are provided just below the tab's title allowing you to easily switch back and forth between the Summary and the Details, and a third link returns you to the Compare request. An Export button image2021-8-18_15-2-10.pngin the upper right corner can be used to export the compare results as a delimited text file.

Summary View

The title of the Comparison Summary section includes the date and time of the compare. The Results portion presents two bar graphs depicting the file differences. The Comparison Summary graph depicts and lists the number of old records compared, new records compared, and differences. Those differences are expanded in the Comparison Details graph on the right, which depicts and lists the number of changed, inserted, and deleted records. The content of the graphs will vary based on the type of compare that was run. You can click on any of the Differences bars to display the associated changed, added, or deleted data in the Details view.

Below the graphs is a link for displaying processing options such as host, port, and compare type used. If any messages were issued, another link appears that you can click to display them.
The Old File and New File sections of the Comparison Summary list the full file names of the Old File and the New File that were compared. Clicking a file name opens a File-AID Data Editor request for that file. This section also lists the Host:port combination, the number of records read, the number of records compared, and (if applicable) the layout used for the two files.
If there are no differences—based on the compare criteria you specified—between the old file and the new file, a graphic appears with a message stating that no differences were found. This does not imply that the two files are identical—only that the compare, as run, did not identify any differences.

Hovering over any bar in the Comparison Summary or Comparison Details graphs will also display the number records or differences associated with that bar.

Warning

Important

The Comparison Summary and Comparison Details graphs will not be shown if the compare was run in RDz or IDz. In this situation, an alternate textual view of the compare results is presented.

Details View

The Details view has two sections: File Differences and Record Differences.

File Differences Section

The upper portion of the Details view lists differences in the two files based on the contents of the new file. This File Differences section lists changed, inserted, or deleted records depending on the type of the compare and the link used to access the Details view.
Three buttons in the upper right corner of the File Differences section are used to indicate and control the differences displayed:


    • image2021-8-18_15-2-37.pngchanged
    • image2021-8-18_15-2-51.pnginserted
    • image2021-8-18_15-3-6.pngdeleted.

If a button is selected (depressed), entries for the corresponding type of file difference are listed in the table. If nothing is listed for the button(s) selected, there are no corresponding results of that type to show. When you click a graph bar to switch to the Details view, the associated button is automatically selected. You can manually select one, two, or all three buttons as required.

The File Differences table lists the compare results differences grouped into pages. The number of differences per page is controlled by a File-AID Compare preference. The default is 100. You can move to the desired page by clicking the image2021-8-18_15-3-25.pngFirst Page, image2021-8-18_15-3-39.pngPrevious Page, image2021-8-18_15-3-56.pngNext Page, and image2021-8-18_15-4-10.pngLast Page buttons below the table.

The first column of the File Differences section lists the Result of the compare, which can be a Changed, Inserted, or Deleted record. Any changes are highlighted using the color designated in your preferences. You can click on an entry to display it in the Record Differences section below, and you can use your keyboard arrow keys or the image2021-8-18_15-4-28.pngPrevious Record and image2021-8-18_15-4-42.pngNext Record buttons in the upper right corner of the Record Differences section to modify your selection up or down in the File Differences table. When scrolling through results, each page in the table automatically wraps from the top result to the previous page or from the bottom result to the next page, as needed.

Record Differences Section

The lower portion of the Details view shows the differences between an old file record and the corresponding new file record. This Record Differences section displays the content of changed, inserted, or deleted records based on the new file. Changes are highlighted using the color designated in your preferences.

Two configurations are available for the Record Differences section with a button for each: image2021-8-18_15-5-2.pngVertical comparison view presents the content of the old record above the content of the new one, and image2021-8-18_15-5-31.pngHorizontal comparison view presents the old record on the left and the new record on the right. This horizontal view can also be modified to hide field levels by clicking the image2021-8-18_15-5-48.pngFlat Presentation button to the right. To display only fields that have changed and hide those that are unchanged, click the image2021-8-18_15-6-2.png Show changed fields button.

To export the Compare results

  1. Either click the image2021-8-18_15-6-17.pngExport button in the upper right corner of the Comparison Summary, or right-click on an open area of the view and select Export. The Export File-AID Compare Results dialog box appears.
  2. Either enter a name for the exported csv file in the File name field, or click Browse, browse to the desired location, enter a name for the exported csv file in the File name field, and click Save.
  3. Choose Comma from the Field delimiter dropdown list.
  4. Choose a Text qualifier from the dropdown list. Options are None (the default) and Double quote.
  5. Click OK. A comma separated values (.csv) file is exported to the specified destination. This file contains details from the compare, including date and time of the compare and the number of records read, compared, matched, changed, inserted, and deleted. Host:port information, along with Old File and New File names, are also included in the exported results.

File-AID Compare Preferences

File-AID Compare preferences allow you to control settings and defaults for Compare requests. To change your preferences, click Window>Preferences. The Preferences dialog box appears.

Expand Compuware and select File-AID Compare. The Preferences for File-AID Compare are presented in two main sections: General settings and Record matching defaults.
In addition to the Compuware>File-AID Compare preferences, general appearance preferences for Eclipse color and fonts can be used to control the color highlighting of differences used in the Compare details display.

When you change your preferences settings, the updated preferences will be remembered the next time you start File-AID Compare. To restore the default settings, click Restore Defaults. Then click Apply or OK to accept your changes.

Specify preferences for File-AID Compare

  1. Enter the maximum number of differences to include in Compare results in the Limit for the number of differences to include in comparison details field. This limit will be used to pre-fill the corresponding field on the Limits tab of new Compare requests. The default is 1000.
  2. Enter the number of differences per page in the Number of differences to display per page field. Compare results are grouped into pages, and this value allows you to tailor those pages to the desired size. The default is 100.
  3. If desired, select the checkbox for When a compare request includes a KSDS VSAM file, always match using key fields. If the checkbox is selected, the corresponding choice will be pre-selected on the Record Matching tab of new Compare requests that specify a KSDS file, overriding any default matching method selected in the next step. The default is for the checkbox to be selected.

  4. Select a default matching method. The available choices are:

    • Match records by using a sort field or key field.
    • Attempt to find a record match by reading ahead in the file that is likely in order
    • Attempt to find a record match by reading ahead/behind in the file that is likely not in order
    • Match records by using the record number as the key (1 to 1, 2 to 2, etc.)

    The corresponding choice will be pre-selected on the Record Matching tab of new Compare requests.

  5. Enter a number in the Default number of records to read ahead or behind in an attempt to find matches field. This value will be used to pre-fill the corresponding fields on the Record Matching tab of new Compare requests. The default is 100.
  6. To change the color used to highlight differences in Compare results, click the Colors and Fonts link. On the Colors and Fonts preference dialog, expand File-AID Compare and select Compare differences highlight colors. Click Edit, choose the desired highlighting color from the Color dialog box, and click OK.

 

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BMC Compuware Topaz Workbench 20.08