BATCH PROCESSING
The word batch means nothing but group of similar things. items, jobs that grouped together and which having similar characteristics.Now in computer Batch means similar kind of jobs or similar kind of transactions .
Batch in true sense is a technique in which similar transactions are grouped together and processed sequentially at once without any interruption and without end user interaction.
It is repetitive in nature.
Lets take an example
In a bank so many customers maintaining their accounts now I want to calculate interest of their accounts manually which is not possible so we have to think about batch processing as interest calculation is similar Jobs for all various category of accounts .
The Interest calculation is take place outside business hour as because large number of transactions are involved which can not possible through on-line processing if we do so our daily day to day and time to time work will be effected so interest calculations is one of the example which is supported by batch processing.
In batch processing all the resources are very effectively used.User interaction is not needed when batch processing going on. In case of transaction processing it processed transactions one at a time but user interaction is required.
HOW BATCH SYSTEMS WORK
Each batch having header which having a batch number,batch type and number of documents it consists.
Forms or document which need to process are collected during whole day need to be sorted by their type.
Each separate type will create separate batch like Batch1,Batch 2, Batch 3 now suppose if batch 1 is to large then it is splited into sub batch like B1,B2,B3
When the batch will entered into the system at first batch header information i.e Batch No,type etc.will be checked by batch entry system.
The item in the batch will be written in file called transaction file which will be sorted further and which helps to update the master file.
Each transaction items are matched with respesctive master item and updated accordingly whenever any changes are reflected a new copy of the master file will be created .
If any error is occurred an error report also generated.
In Banking system batch processing is mostly used whether it may interest calculation,cheque clearing system charges calculation etc.It is also used in food processing,dairy processing.
It is applicable for large volume of data but not suitable for small volume of data.
