Operand descriptions

The operands described in this section can be specified in any order.

FROM(indd)

Specifies the ddname of the input data set to be read by DFSORT for this operation. An indd DD statement must be present and must define an input data set that conforms to the rules for DFSORT's SORTIN data set.

Refer to JCL restrictions for more information regarding the selection of ddnames.

JKFROM

Specifies you are using a JOINKEYS application with this COPY operator to copy the joined records. You must provide a USING(xxxx) operand. In xxxxCNTL, you must provide a JOINKEYS statement with F1=ddname1 for the F1 file and a JOINKEYS statement with F2=ddname2 for the F2 file, as well as JOIN and REFORMAT statements as needed.

TO(outdd,...)

Specifies the ddnames of the output data sets to be written by DFSORT for this operation. From 1 to 10 outdd names can be specified. An outdd DD statement must be present for each outdd name specified. If a single outdd data set is specified, DFSORT is called once to copy the indd data set to the outdd data set, using SORTOUT processing; the outdd data set must conform to the rules for DFSORT's SORTOUT data set. If multiple outdd data sets are specified and SERIAL is not specified, DFSORT is called once to copy the indd data set to the outdd data sets, using OUTFIL processing; the outdd data sets must conform to the rules for DFSORT's OUTFIL data sets.

TO and USING can both be specified. If USING is not specified, TO must be specified. If TO is not specified, USING must be specified.

A ddname specified in the FROM operand must not also be specified in the TO operand.

Refer to JCL restrictions for more information regarding the selection of ddnames.

USING(xxxx)

Specifies the first 4 characters of the ddname for the control statement data set to be used by DFSORT for this operation. xxxx must be four characters that are valid in a ddname of the form xxxxCNTL. xxxx must not be SYSx.

If USING is specified, an xxxxCNTL DD statement must be present and the control statements in it must conform to the rules for DFSORT's SORTCNTL data set.

TO and USING can both be specified. If USING is not specified, TO must be specified. If TO is not specified, USING must be specified and the xxxxCNTL data set must contain either one or more OUTFIL statements or a MODS statement for an E35 routine that disposes of all records. Other statements are optional.

Refer to JCL restrictions for more information regarding the selection of ddnames.

VSAMTYPE(x)

Specifies the record type for a VSAM input data set. x must be either F for fixed-length record processing or V for variable-length record processing.

If VSAMTYPE(x) is specified, ICETOOL will pass a RECORD TYPE=x control statement to DFSORT. (If you specify a RECORD TYPE=x statement in the xxxxCNTL data set, it will override the one passed by ICETOOL.)

For complete information on record type processing for VSAM input, see RECORD control statement.

LOCALE(name)

Specifies that locale processing is to be used and designates the name of the locale to be made active during DFSORT processing. LOCALE(name) can be used to override the LOCALE installation option. For complete details on LOCALE(name), see the discussion of the LOCALE operand in OPTION control statement.

LOCALE(CURRENT)

Specifies that locale processing is to be used, and the current locale active when DFSORT is entered will remain the active locale during DFSORT processing. LOCALE(CURRENT) can be used to override the LOCALE installation option. For complete details on LOCALE(CURRENT), see the discussion of the LOCALE operand in OPTION control statement.

LOCALE(NONE)

Specifies that locale processing is not to be used. DFSORT will use the binary encoding of the code page defined for your data for collating and comparing. LOCALE(NONE) can be used to override the LOCALE installation option. For complete details on LOCALE(NONE), see the discussion of the LOCALE operand in OPTION control statement.

SERIAL

Specifies that OUTFIL processing is not to be used when multiple outdd data sets are specified. DFSORT is called multiple times and uses SORTOUT processing; the outdd data sets must conform to the rules for DFSORT's SORTOUT data set. SERIAL is not recommended because the use of serial processing (that is, multiple calls to DFSORT) instead of OUTFIL processing can degrade performance and imposes certain restrictions as detailed later in this section. SERIAL is ignored if a single outdd data set is specified.

DFSORT is called to copy the indd data set to the first outdd data set using the DFSORT control statements in the xxxxCNTL data set if USING(xxxx) is specified. If the first copy is successful, DFSORT is called as many times as necessary to copy the first outdd data set to the second and subsequent outdd data sets. Therefore, for maximum efficiency, use a disk data set as the first in a list of outdd data sets on both disk and tape. If more than one outdd data set is specified, DFSORT must be able to read the first outdd data set after it is written in order to copy it to the other outdd data sets. Do not use a SYSOUT or DUMMY data set as the first in a list of outdd data sets because:

if the first data set is SYSOUT, DFSORT abends when it tries to copy the SYSOUT data set to the second outdd data set.
if the first data set is DUMMY, DFSORT copies the empty DUMMY data set to the other outdd data sets, with the result that all outdd data sets are then empty.