A record-pattern expression of a record pattern of data records is translated to a character-pattern expression of a character pattern. A data-record series of data records is converted to a character string in which each character in the character string corresponds to a respective data record in the data-record series. Pattern instances of the character pattern in the character string are searched to identify ordinal character positions in the character string of characters in the character pattern instances. Data records at ordinal record positions in the record series of data records corresponding to the ordinal character positions are reported.