If variable-length records longer than the LRECL of the SORTOUT or OUTFIL data set are acceptable (for example, if you added bytes at the end with VLTRAIL=string), increase the LRECL of the SORTOUT or OUTFIL data set so it is equal to or greater than the largest record to be written.

If variable-length records are longer than the LRECL of the SORTOUT or OUTFIL data set and you want to truncate long records to the LRECL, use the VLLONG option. Keep in mind that the use of VLLONG causes data at the end of long records to be lost.

If variable-length output records are longer than 32757 bytes for the SORTOUT or OUTFIL data set, you can specify an LRECL up to 32767 bytes if you also specify RECFM=VBS.

If variable-length records are longer than the LRECL of the OUTFIL data set, you may be able to use the VLTRIM=byte parameter of the OUTFIL statement to shorten them. For example, VLTRIM=C' ' will remove trailing blanks from the records.

If variable-length output records are longer than the LRECL of the SORTIN data set, the first data set in the concatenation does not have the largest LRECL as required. Either specify the data set with the largest LRECL first in the SORTIN concatenation, or specify LRECL=n as a parameter on the SORTIN DD statement where n is equal to or greater than the length of the longest record.

If variable-length records from an E15, E32, or E35 exit are longer than the corresponding Ln value, correct the RDW or Ln value, as appropriate.

You can use the ICETOOL STATS operator with ON(VLEN) to show the length of the longest variable-length record. You can use the ICETOOL DISPLAY operator with ON(VLEN) to show the length of each variable-length record.