If every record in the file has the same fixed length, select

Fixed

and specify the size of each record.

If a file contains variable-length records where a record prefix contains an integer that contains the length of the remaining data in the record, select the

Variable

record format. Linux, UNIX and Windows applications seldom write binary variable-length records, but sometimes it is useful to download z/OS files to Linux, UNIX, or Windows and process them there. A commonly used variable format is VBP2, which you can use to map a file downloaded by FTP with the BINARY and QUOTE SITE RDW options. For more information, see Downloading z/OS Files for Reading on Linux, UNIX, or Windows.

It is best to view the file in hexadecimal mode to determine if the file has record length prefixes and to choose the appropriate variable format type. This procedure might require a certain amount of experimentation with database row tests.