Including Date field in the output file using SORT

Including Date field in the output file:

Many a times it is required to include the date in the output file. This can be done using DATE parameter in SORT.
There are 3 DATE parameter option available, DATEn, DATEn(c) and DATEnP where n=1, 2 or 3.

Consider the input file INFILE,
1111111111111111111111111111
1111111111111111111111111111
1211111111111111111111111111
1311111111111111111111111111
1411111111111111111111111111
1511111111111111111111111111
1611111111111111111111111111
1711111111111111111111111111
1811111111111111111111111111
1911111111111111111111111111
2011111111111111111111111111
2111111111111111111111111111
The output date is in Zoned Decimal format.
The DATE1 occupies 10 bytes and gives the date in YYYYMMDD format.
The DATE2 occupies 6 bytes and gives the date in YYYYMM format.
The DATE3 occupies 7 bytes and gives year and Julian date (JDT) as YYYYJDT format.
The JCL’s below show the use of DATEn parameter. The current date August 26, 2010(Julian Date 238)

//STEP01 EXEC PGM=SORT
//SORTIN DD DSN=INFILE,DISP=SHR
//SORTOUT DD DSN=OUTFILE1,DISP=SHR
//SYSIN DD *
SORT FIELDS=COPY
OUTREC FIELDS=(1,29,&DATE1)
//

The contents of OUTFILE are as below,
OUTFILE:
1111111111111111111111111111 20100826
1111111111111111111111111111 20100826
1211111111111111111111111111 20100826
............

On using DATE1 we have the current date in YYYYMMDD format.

//STEP01 EXEC PGM=SORT
//SORTIN DD DSN=INFILE,DISP=SHR
//SORTOUT DD DSN=OUTFILE2,DISP=SHR
//SYSIN DD *
SORT FIELDS=COPY
OUTREC FIELDS=(1,29,&DATE2)
//

The contents of OUTFILE2 are as below,
1111111111111111111111111111 201008
1111111111111111111111111111 201008
1211111111111111111111111111 201008
.........
On using DATE2 we have the output date in YYYYJDT format

//STEP01 EXEC PGM=SORT
//SORTIN DD DSN=INFILE,DISP=SHR
//SORTOUT DD DSN=OUTFILE2,DISP=SHR
//SYSIN DD *
SORT FIELDS=COPY
OUTREC FIELDS=(1,29,&DATE3)
//

The contents of the OUTFILE2 is as below,
1111111111111111111111111111 2010238

Using the DATEn(c) parameter:
On using the DATEn(C) parameter, the output date appears in formatted way wherein a character ‘/’ is placed between the year month and date fields.
DATE1(c) occupies 10 bytes and the format is YYYY/MM/DD.
DATE2(c) occupies 7 bytes and the format is YYYY/MM.
DATE3(c) occupies 7 bytes and the format is YYYY/JDT.

Using the DATEnP parameter:
On using DATEnP the output appears in Packed decimal format. So the number of bytes occupied is lesser than DATEn parameter. Other than this there is no difference between DATEn and DATEnP.
The DATE1 occupies 5 bytes and gives the date in YYYYMMDD format.
The DATE2 occupies 4 bytes and gives the date in YYYYMM format.
The DATE3 occupies 4 bytes and gives year and Julian date (JDT) as YYYYJDT format.
1111111111111111111111111111 2010238


Retrieving Information on records having older dates:
Consider a case wherein we need to retrieve records that have yesterday’s date.
The JCL is as below,

//STEP01 EXEC PGM=SORT
//SORTIN DD DSN=INFILE1,DISP=SHR
//SORTOUT DD DSN=OUTFILE3,DISP=SHR
//SYSIN DD *
SORT FIELDS=COPY
INCLUDE COND=(30,8,CH,EQ,&DATE1-1)
OUTREC FIELDS=(1,40)
//

Splitting Input Files using Sort. Use of SPLIT ,SPLITBY,SPLIT1R commmands

SPLIT command spits the output records one record at a time among output datasets. This happens until all the output records are written. The split happens in rotation among the datasets mentioned in the OUTFIL.
The First record from the output records is written to first dataset mentioned in the OUTFIL group, the Second record from the output records gets written to the second dataset mentioned in the OUTFIL group and so on.
When each OUTFIL dataset has 1 record, the rotation starts again with the dataset mentioned first in the OUTFIL group.
The records are not contiguous in the OUTFIL datasets.
The Below JCL splits the data in INFILE and copies to OUTFILE1 and OUTFILE2 as mentioned above.

Consider the contents of Input File - INFILE as below:

1111111111111111111111111111
1211111111111111111111111111
1311111111111111111111111111
1411111111111111111111111111
1511111111111111111111111111
1611111111111111111111111111
1711111111111111111111111111
1811111111111111111111111111
1911111111111111111111111111
2011111111111111111111111111
2111111111111111111111111111
Let us use the commands and see the outputs.

The Below JCL splits the data in INFILE and copies to OUTFILE1 and OUTFILE2 as mentioned above.

//STEP01 EXEC PGM=SORT
//SORTIN DD DSN=INFILE,DISP=SHR
//SORTOUT1 DD DSN=OUTFILE1,DISP=SHR
//SORTOUT2 DD DSN=OUTFILE2,DISP=SHR
//SYSIN DD *
SORT FIELDS=COPY
OUTFIL FNAMES=(SORTOUT1,SORTOUT2),SPLIT
/*

The contents of OUTFILE1 and OUTFILE2 would be as below,
OUTFILE1
1111111111111111111111111111
1311111111111111111111111111
1511111111111111111111111111
1711111111111111111111111111
1911111111111111111111111111
2111111111111111111111111111
OUTFILE2
1211111111111111111111111111
1411111111111111111111111111
1611111111111111111111111111
1811111111111111111111111111
2011111111111111111111111111
OUTFILE1 dataset contains records 1, 3, 5…so on.
OUTFILE2 dataset contains records 2, 4, 6…so on.
Note that the records in the output datasets are not contiguous.

SPLITBY Command:

SPLITBY splits the output records M records at a time in rotation among the datasets mentioned in the OUTFIL. This happens until all the output records are written.
The First Set of records from the output records gets written to first dataset mentioned in the OUTFIL group, the Second Set of records from the output records gets written to the second dataset mentioned in the OUTFIL group and so on.
When each OUTFIL dataset has the specified set of records, the rotation starts again with the dataset mentioned first in the OUTFIL group.
The syntax is SPLITBY=M, where M=1,2,3…so on
The records are not contiguous in the OUTFIL datasets.
SPLITBY=1 is equivalent to SPLIT.
The below JCL splits the data in INFILE and copies to OUTFILE3 and OUTFILE4 as mentioned above.

//STEP01 EXEC PGM=SORT
//SORTIN DD DSN=INFILE,DISP=SHR
//SORTOUT1 DD DSN=OUTFILE3,DISP=SHR
//SORTOUT2 DD DSN=OUTFILE4,DISP=SHR
//SYSIN DD *
SORT FIELDS=COPY
OUTFIL FNAMES=(SORTOUT1,SORTOUT2),SPLITBY=3
/*

The contents of OUTFILE3 and OUTFILE4 would be as below,
OUTFILE3
1111111111111111111111111111
1211111111111111111111111111
1311111111111111111111111111
1711111111111111111111111111
1811111111111111111111111111
1911111111111111111111111111
OUTFILE4
1411111111111111111111111111
1511111111111111111111111111
1611111111111111111111111111
2011111111111111111111111111
2111111111111111111111111111
OUTFILE3 contains records (1, 2, 3), (7, 8, 9).
OUTFILE4 contains records (4, 5, 6), (10, 11).
Note that the records in the output datasets are not contiguous.

SPLIT1R splits output records M records at a time in one rotation among the datasets mentioned in the OUTFIL. This happens until all the records are written. In SPLIT1R the rotation happens only once among the OUTFIL datasets.
If on reaching the last OUTFIL, more than M records from the output records is left, all of those would be move to last OUTFIL.
If the input has only M records, then all input records will get moved to the first OUTFIL. The remaining OUTFIL datasets will be empty.
The syntax is SPLIT1R=M, where M=1, 2, 3…so on.
The records are contiguous among the OUTFIL datasets.
The below JCL’s splits the data in INFILE,
JCL1:

//STEP01 EXEC PGM=SORT
//SORTIN DD DSN=INFILE,DISP=SHR
//SORTOUT1 DD DSN=OUTFILE5,DISP=SHR
//SORTOUT2 DD DSN=OUTFILE6,DISP=SHR
//SYSIN DD *
SORT FIELDS=COPY
OUTFIL FNAMES=(SORTOUT1,SORTOUT2),SPLIT1R=5

The output files contents are shown below,
OUTFILE5:
1111111111111111111111111111
1211111111111111111111111111
1311111111111111111111111111
1411111111111111111111111111
1511111111111111111111111111
OUTFILE6:
1611111111111111111111111111
1711111111111111111111111111
1811111111111111111111111111
1911111111111111111111111111
2011111111111111111111111111
2111111111111111111111111111
There are two output files, and M=5. The input INFILE contains 11 records.
The OUTFILE5 contains records 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
The dataset OUTFILE6 contains records 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11(i. e all the remaining records)

JCL2:

//STEP01 EXEC PGM=SORT
//SORTIN DD DSN=INFILE,DISP=SHR
//SORTOUT1 DD DSN=OUTFILE7,DISP=SHR
//SORTOUT2 DD DSN=OUTFILE8,DISP=SHR
//SYSIN DD *
SORT FIELDS=COPY
OUTFIL FNAMES=(SORTOUT1,SORTOUT2),SPLIT1R=11
//

The output file contents are shown below:

OUTFILE7:
1111111111111111111111111111
1211111111111111111111111111
1311111111111111111111111111
1411111111111111111111111111
1511111111111111111111111111
1611111111111111111111111111
1711111111111111111111111111
1811111111111111111111111111
1911111111111111111111111111
2011111111111111111111111111
2111111111111111111111111111

OUTFILE8
empty as expected.

Convert VB file to FB and Convert FB file to VB using SORT

The below JCL copies the VB file to FB file.

//STEP01 EXEC PGM=SORT
//SORTIN DD DSN=INPUTVBFILE,DISP=SHR
//SORTOUT DD DSN=OUTPUTFBFILE,DISP=SHR
//*
//SORTWK01 DD SPACE=(CYL,10),UNIT=SYSDA
//SYSOUT DD SYSOUT=*
//SYSIN DD *
SORT FIELDS=(5,76,CH,A)
OUTFIL FNAMES=SORTOUT,VTOF,BUILD=(5,76)
/*

The INPUTVBFILE is a VB file with record length 80.
The OUTPUTFFBFILE is a FB file of record length 76.
Before executing the JCL it is assumed that both the SORTIN and SORTOUT datasets exists.
SORT FIELDS=(5,76,CH,A) sorts the input VB file.
VTOF will handle copying the VB file to FB file.
It is essential to give BUILD or OUTREC parameter when VTOF parameter is used.

Below JCL will Convert FB file to VB

//STEP01 EXEC PGM=SORT
//SORTIN DD DSN=INPUTFBFILE,DISP=SHR
//SORTOF01 DD DSN=OUTPUTVBFILE,
// DISP=(NEW,CATLG,DELETE),
// UNIT=SYSDA,
// DCB=(LRECL=80,RECFM=VB,BLKSIZE=84),
// SPACE=(TRK,(3000,2000),RLSE)
//SYSIN DD *
SORT FIELDS=COPY
OUTFIL FNAMES=SORTOF01,FTOV

It is not essential to give BUILD or OUTREC parameter when FTOV parameter is used.