Managing a data set

A system for managing records of a sequential-access data set of a storage system, the system comprising:

• a memory;
• and
• a processor coupled to the memory, wherein the processor is configured to:
• sort a first group-of-records of the sequential-access data set, wherein the sequential
• access data set includes one of Basic Sequential Access Method (BSAM), Queued Sequential Access Method (QSAM), and Virtual Storage Access Method (VSAM);
• update a first field in a catalog entry of the sequential-access data set with a value indicating a record position of a last sorted record in the first group-of-records;
• add a second group-of-records to the sequential-access data set after the record position of the last sorted record in the first group-of-records;
• update a second field in the catalog entry with a value indicating the number of unsorted records in the second group-of-records;
• compare the value in the second field to a threshold associated with a quantity-of
• changes to the sequential-access data set performed by a processor since a previous sort, wherein the quantity-of-changes is determined as a percentage of the total size of the sequential-access data set, when the data set contains one-thousand records and one-percent of the data set is a trigger, the quantity-of-changes is ten because ten changes will set off the triggering event;
• in response to determining that the value in the second field exceeds the threshold, sorting the second group-of-records and merging the sorted second group-of-records with the sorted first group-of-records such that, with respect to order, the first group-of-records and the second group-of-records appear as a single group;
• update the first field in the catalog entry with a value indicating a record position of a new last sorted record in the merged first and second group-of-records;
• and
• reset the second field in the catalog entry to zero after merging the second group-of-records with the first group-of-records.