General coding notes

Unless the input file is very large, two or three SORTWKdd data sets are usually sufficient. Two or three large SORTWKdd data sets are preferable to several small data sets. Placing each SORTWKdd data set on a separate device can improve performance.
For optimum allocation of resources such as virtual storage, avoid specifying a large number of work data sets unnecessarily.
A SORTWKdd data set should not be the same as the SORTIN data set, the SORTOUT data set, any OUTFIL data set, or any other SORTWKdd data set because this can cause lost or incorrect data or unpredictable results.
Cylinder allocation is preferable for performance reasons. Temporary SORTWKdd data sets allocated in tracks or blocks (without ROUND) are readjusted to cylinders by DFSORT.
For disk work data sets, any valid ddname of the form SORTWKdd or SORTWKd can be used (for example, SORTWK01, SORTWKC3, SORTWK2, SORTWK#5, SORTWKA, SORTWKXY and so on). The ddnames can be in any order. SORTWKd and SORTWK0d are not treated as duplicate ddnames (for example, SORTWK5 and SORTWK05 will both be used if specified, as will SORTWKQ and SORTWK0Q). If you specify more than 255 ddnames and the Blockset technique is selected, only the first 255 ddnames are used. If you specify more than 32 ddnames and the Blockset technique is not selected, only the first 32 ddnames are used.
For tape work data sets, at least three SORTWKdd data sets must be specified. The first three ddnames must be SORTWK01, SORTWK02 and SORTWK03. Subsequent ddnames, if specified, must be in order from SORTWK04 through SORTWK32, with no numbers skipped,
FREE=CLOSE cannot be specified.
Spool, dummy, subsystem, VSAM and z/OS UNIX file system data sets, and z/OS UNIX files, must not be specified as work data sets
Parameters relating to ASCII data should not be included for tape work data sets.