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Overview of Work Area Processing

After the work area is created, it may be conditionally changed and written to output files. Additional processing will be performed, based upon conditions set by comparing fields within the work area, or by comparing a field within the work area to a constant. Full boolean logic is available by combining the compares with the logical connectors AND or OR. When a specified condition is met, DYNA-MatCH offers several options for the manipulation of data:

• Fields can be moved.
• Arithmetic operations can be performed.
• Records can be written to specified files from specified columns in the work area.
• Default output can be deleted.
• Processing can be stopped.
• A constant can be moved into the work area.
• A page break can be requested when the report option is used.

Fields moved into undefined columns of the work area will remain unchanged for subsequent work areas. These fields can be used or referenced during subsequent processing to perform such tasks as:

• Setting switches to indicate a condition has been encountered
• Creating special processing for field breaks
• Using fields from previous records, when different record types are used
• Combining data from a number of records to create one output record