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Status Not under consideration
Workspace z/OS
Categories DFSMS DFSORT
Created by Guest
Created on Nov 20, 2023

RELATED IDEAS

SORT/ICETOOL statements for variable length records

Allow the coding of SORT / ICETOOL statements without having to add +4 to every position to account for the variable length RDW.  This would require a new SORT option (perhaps VLRDW) to allow for both old and new method. 

Benefit:  Easier to both code and read.  The same statements would also work if the file was copied to a fixed length record.  

Cost:  none.  

Idea priority Low
  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Jan 12, 2024

    The intent of this idea is to make DFSORT easier to code. When I Browse or View a dataset I use the COLS command to get the start position of each field. The values shown are without the 4 bytes for the RDW. The first character shows as position 1 not 5.

    By specifying VLRDW=YES then the user can treat the record as if it was fixed length. It would force options VLSCMP,VLSHRT. The sort messages to SYSOUT/DFSMSG would show the same values as coded in the SYSIN ie. without the +4 bytes for RDW.

    This assumes the user does not want to change the length of a record. When SORT outputs the record it would keep the RDW that was on the input.

    As a final note I have at times resorted to doing a copy/convert of a dataset from variable to fixed length and then running an ICETOOL/SORT against the fixed file. More CPU & IO cost but easier to code.

  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Dec 4, 2023
    Thanks for submitting the IDEA to enhance DFSORT control statements. The idea seems simple, but we would like to clarify a bit on the complications that may arise due to this enhancement. The addition of RDW to the positions for processing Variable length records have affect on the following control statements.

    INCLUDE/OMIT
    SORT FIELDS
    MERGE FIELDS
    INREC
    OUTREC
    E15/E33/E35/E61 EXITS
    OUTFIL

    If DFSORT is to internally modify the fields, how does the application programmer know if he got the right results?. The sysout shows a different positions for sorting and the actual sort is done on fields by adding the RDW which is different. Auditing such jobs would be difficult. The same goes for all other statements. We cannot change the control cards dynamically and print them out in sysout.

    The usage of symbols would resolve this issue. DFSORT symbols provide you a mechanism where you do not have to type in the position of the field and it automatically calculates the offset of the position based on the length of fields. Please let us know if you are interested about this approach.

    keeping in mind the above criteria this idea is unlikely to be given high enough priority to be placed into the product plan. So I respectfully have to decline this Idea.

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