You can use the INCLUDE or OMIT statement and the STOPAFT and SKIPREC options to reduce the number of records to be processed, which can reduce processor and data transfer time.

• The INCLUDE and OMIT statements allow you to select records by comparing fields with constants or other fields.
• The STOPAFT option allows you to specify the maximum number of records to be accepted for sorting or copying.
• The SKIPREC option allows you to skip records at the beginning of the input file and sort or copy only the remaining records.