When you are editing a sequential file you may edit either the flat form or the structured view of this file. The file is first loaded into the data file editor. When you have finished editing you will need to save this file.

When you are using the structured view editing, you will be constrained to only add values which comply with the field definition. So, only numeric values in PIC 9 fields etc.

When you edit in flat form you can enter any values you wish. This may be important to you for testing, if you want to put illegal data into certain fields.

Here is how to edit files in Eclipse and Visual Studio 2010.

See Next: Defining Record layouts