Arbutus procedures support the concept of grouping multiple commands, for execution in one pass of the file. There are two primary uses for this technology:
- First, dramatic performance improvements are possible, as the data access component, which is shared across the commands, typically makes up the largest part of the processing load
- Second, for more complex file types with multiple record types, your processing of a particular record type may depend on separate, and different, processes based on other preceding record types
Groups also support the conditional execution of sub-groups, using an if-then-else-else… style. The result is an easy implementation of case-style logic that separates processing steps for each record type or condition. This supports the accessing of even the most complex file structures.