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How to view a VSAM file?

Are there any window 7 or 8 tools or software that will display the contents of a VSAM file? I have a couple of VSAM files that were sent to me and need to see the contents.

Pavel Celba

Many VSAM formats exist and files do not use ASCII coding standard obviously. So the method will depend on your data source.

You should find some ODBC driver (more info: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa266490(v=vs.60).aspx) and open the file in MS Access etc.

Or (depending on the file size) just try to open the file in some text editor to see the garbage inside (don't save any changes please).

The best way is to ask some mainframe programmer. You may also look for some viewer as described e.g. here: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/bit.listserv.ibm-main/eOvm7HODpdE

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aikimark

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Michael Best

Athough you can view the VSAM file with notepad, you will need the program that created the VSAM file to understand what it contains.

aikimark

you will need the program that created the VSAM file to understand what it contains

Not quite. You need the meta-data, data dictionary, COBOL data section(s), or a description of the data at sufficient level/detail to understand and use the data. Knowing about the application that wrote the data can help you, but isn't necessary. For instance, if the VSAM file was from a DB2 system, we might use the documented page layout to help us calculate the start of each record in the 4K block.