You can use symbols in the following DFSORT control statements: INCLUDE, INREC, JOINKEYS, MERGE, OMIT, OPTION, OUTFIL, OUTREC, REFORMAT, SORT and SUM. In general, you can use symbols in these DFSORT statements where you can use constants ('string', C'string', X'string', B'string', n, +n or -n), fields (p,m,f or p,m or p), parsed fields (%nn), and output columns (c:). See the discussion of each control statement in Using DFSORT program control statements for a description of its syntax.

You can use symbols in these control statements in any source (that is, DFSPARM, SYSIN, SORTCNTL, and parameter lists).

When DFSORT transforms these control statements, it removes labels and remarks, and continues statements by placing an asterisk in column 72 and beginning the next line in column 16. DFSORT will list the original control statements as specified (with labels, remarks, comment statements and blank statements) by source, as well as the transformed statements.

Details and examples of the use of symbols for each applicable DFSORT control statement is given later in this section. The examples are meant to illustrate variations in how symbols can be used and how they will be transformed. Therefore, the examples do not necessarily correspond to how symbols would be used in real applications.

C_Field1,6,5,CH
Filler,'*'
Any_Format,12,3
Z_Field1,22,8,ZD
P_Field1,30,4,PD
C_Field2,4,2,ch
SubString,16,3,SS
Start_col,11
Dept_col,55
LIMIT,+12500
Sysplex,S'&SYSPLEX.'
Depts,'J82,L92,M72'
Code_1,c'86A4Z'
QCON,C'Carrie''s Constant'
Stopper,X'FFFFFF'
Flags,35,1,BI
  Error,B'11010000'
  Empty,B'......01'
  Full,X'FF'
Lookup,52,1,BI
  Entry1,X'05'
  Value1,'Read'
  Entry2,X'20'
  Value2,'Update'
RDW,1,4              Record Descriptor Word
Variable_Fields,451  Variable fields at end of variable-length record
* Constants for report
Div_Title,'Division:  '
  BO_Title,'Branch Office'
BO_Hyphens,'-------------'
 BO_Equals,'============='
  PL_Title,'       Profit/(Loss)'
PL_Hyphens,'--------------------'
 PL_Equals,'===================='
Total,'Total'
Lowest,'Lowest'
* Fields for report
Division,3,10,CH
Branch_Office,16,13,CH
Profit_or_Loss,31,10,ZD
Class_value,%00
Students_value,%01
Class_constant,'CLASS=('
Students_constant,'STUDENTS=('
End_constant,')'
n5,5
n6,6
len80,80
at81,81
len3,3