The /CHECK_SEQUENCE qualifier is unique to the MERGE command. By default, Merge does sequence checking to ensure that the input files have been sorted on the same key. You can also use the /CHECK_SEQUENCE qualifier to check whether the records of one or more files (up to 10) have been sorted. (The records will still be directed to an output file, which you must specify.) If you are checking whether records are sorted on a key field other than the entire record, you must specify key information, along with requesting sequence. High-performance Sort/Merge: The high-performance Sort/Merge utility allows you to specify up to 12 files.