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. In Windows and many O/S user data is stored in files. In a text file, on
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stored in the form of records, one after the other. Suppose, we wanted to store the information about all the employees in our
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As you can see, each record represents the data of a single, individual employee. This way, there would be thousands of
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Well, that¶s the tough part. Coz sequential datasets work more or less similar to a Cassette Tape. Yup.. an audio cassette tape.






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a particular song, you have to start from the beginning of the tape, travel through the entire tape, till you reach the desired song.
You can¶t directly jump to a song and play it. You have to read through the tape, and forward scan through it, till you reach the
desired place.

On the same lines, when you want to search for a particular record say Employee no. 502, you have to travel through the entire
the list of records, one by one, till you reach the desired record. The longer is the Sequential File, the longer is would take to
access the record. You just don¶t know, where the record lies hidden in such huge list/Dataset. So, searching or getting data
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- Free space within a dataset is reclaimed automatically
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An Entry Sequenced Dataset is similar to a Sequential File/PS Dataset. Records are stored one after other in successively. As
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Let me cite a simple, yet practical example.
Suppose you have an empty VSAM KSDS Cluster. You¶ve written a Batch JOB/JCL to read input records of employees and
add them to the KSDS Dataset. You first add Employee EË with key 0Ë to the KSDS File. It works. Next, you add Employee
E2 with key 03 to the KSDS File. It works. Next, you try to add Employee E3 with key 02 to the KSDS File. The Insert is
insuccessful.

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Given below is a rough sketch which will give you a helicopter view of what a KSDS Cluster looks like. Of course, the details
are explained further ahead.


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If you know the house address, you can access the house. The same way, our houses/storage locations in the memory
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Now, imagine, if you didn¶t have an index in a book, and you wanted to find a keyword. You would have to read and scan the
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has two columns, one the keyword, and other the page no./location in the text where you¶d find this keyword. Every page has a
page-number. On the same lines, every record in Storage has an address. So, the INDEX Component of KSDS has an entry for
every keyword(key-field . For example, employees Ë,2,3 each have an entry in the index.

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record. ¢his way, Searching is faster and easier.


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NO¢E : ¢ E ABOVE EXAMPLE MEAN¢ ¢O EXPLAIN ¢ E WORKING OF DA¢A COMPONEN¢ AND INDEXING, IS
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A Relative Record Dataset is organised as a collection/list of records. Each record has Relative Record Number(RRN . The
RRN indicates the relative position of the record in the file. Think of people standing in a long queue to get tickets. RRDS
resembles this ; a person who is 5 places away from the first person in queue(he¶s 6th in line , his RRN will be 5. Note that, in
relative Record Datasets, there is NO KEY-FIELD. Instead, it is upto the user to draw a relationship between any UNIQUE
VALUE and RRN.

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The default size of Control Interval(CI) is 4k= 4096 bytes. owever, the maximum size of a CI is 32k, whereas minimum is 512
bytes.
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Assume, that we have all records of SAME fixed size = Ë024 bytes. And each CI = 4096 bytes. Then, in this example,
No. of records in each CI = 4096/1024 = 4 records/CI

Once again, it is not necessary that all the records are of the same fixed size. Records could be of any length.

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Consider the same example as above -

CI Size = 4096 bytes, all records are of length = 1,270 bytes. In this case, no. of records that can be written to a Control
Interval CI = 3 records. Still some empty space is left over.

1 CI will contain 3 records. 3 x 1,270 = 3,810

¢herefore, 4,096 ± 3,810 = 286 bytes FREESPACE.

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What happens, when you try to write the 4th record?


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Let us study this process of filling up of the Control Interval(CI once again in slow motion. The 4th record is Ë,270 bytes in
length. Control Interval does not have sufficient space. A new Control Interval(CI is created, and roughly one half of the
records are transferred from the old Control Interval(CI to the new Control Interval(CI . This is called 4
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- Control Interval Descriptor Field(CIDF 4 Bytes ± One CIDF per CI(Stores information about the amount and location of free
space in a CI)
- Record Descriptor Field(RDF 3 bytes ± Used to describe the length of the records.
For all same fixed length records, there are 2 RDFs => 1 for storing the length, 1 for storing how many number of records
with the same length.

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What happens if a record has length greater than the CI Size. For example, in the above scenario, if CI Size = 4096 and Record
length = 5,120 bytes. ¢hen, the record grows and extends into another CI. Such a record which occupies many Control
Intervals is called a %
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since its spans multiple Control Intervals.

Carrying forward the above example, the spanned record will completely fill up the first CI of size 4,096. The second CI will
be partially filled. Spanned record will occupy 5,Ë20 ± 4,096 = Ë,024 bytes of the second CI.

You might be tempted to think, that since the second CI has a lot of free/vacant space left, 4,096 ± Ë,024 = 3,072 bytes, it can
accomodate other records. However, this is not so.


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Let us draw parallel on the lines of Control Interval. Let¶s say you have a record, which does not fit into a Control Interval. So.
you would try and make a new Control Interval(CI . A CI Split is likely to occur. But, to add to it, there¶s not enough space in
the Control Area, to create a new Control Interval. Now what happens? A new Control Area will be created and, half of the
control intervals are transferred from the original control Area to the new Control Area. This process is called a 4



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length blocks called Control Intervals, which contain the Logical Records.
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The INDEX component of KSDS has 2 parts ± Index Set and 
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Component. It contains the Ë 2 E
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The INDEX Set of KSDS has one or more levels. Highest level contains only Ë record. And the 


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point to the records at the next level and so on...

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For every Control Area in the Data Component, there is one record in the Sequence Set. Inside each Control Area,
corresponding to the Control Interval, there is one index entry in the Sequence Set record.


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Consider the following Structure :

For example,
In Control Area-Ë :
For Control Interval-Ë, Highest Key Value = Ë
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For Control Interval-2, Highest Key Value = 247
For Control Interval-3, Highest Key Value = 369
These will be the entries in the Sequence Set record corresponding to Control Area Ë.

The entries in the Index Set Record contain the highest key value of the Sequence Set records.

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Suppose we wish to access record 50Ë.
Ë Lookup, the entry in the Index Set Record, then find the appropriate 

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If access is RANDOM ===> then CI Size ===> Reason : Within the CI,
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If access is SEQUENTIAL==> then CI Size =====>No. of CIs =====> I/O Transfer

should be large will be less operations will be less