Introduction

ACUCOBOL-GT® includes a native indexed sequential file system known as Vision. Although many of our customers convert their data to the Vision format, many others choose to keep their data in other COBOL and non-COBOL data formats. This preference is no problem for ACUCOBOL-GT. ACUCOBOL-GT programs can interoperate with many kinds of external data sources, including:

• XML documents
• SQL databases
• ODBC-compliant data sources
• C-ISAM and KSAM files
• File systems that use an EXTFH interface to access files, such as those in transaction processing environments

In addition, ACUCOBOL-GT programs can work with a variety of external data types such as:

• Java data types and arrays
• C data types
• Variant data types and safearrays

These types are described elsewhere in this guide.