To avoid surprises, it's a good idea to check for errors and incorrect positions, lengths and formats in any SYMNAMES statements you create before you use them in DFSORT or ICETOOL statements.

The following simple job will cause DFSORT to issue messages in SYSOUT for any errors it detects in your SYMNAMES statements, allowing you to correct these errors before proceeding. Once your SYMNAMES statements are free of errors, the job will cause DFSORT to show the Symbol Table in SYMNOUT, allowing you to correct any incorrect positions, lengths or formats for your symbols (for example, those caused by incorrect use of *, =, SKIP, and so on).

//CHECK JOB A402,PROGRAMMER
//DOIT EXEC PGM=ICEMAN
//SYMNAMES DD ...        SYMNAMES statements to be checked
//SYMNOUT DD SYSOUT=*
//SORTIN DD *
//SORTOUT DD DUMMY
//SYSIN DD *
  OPTION COPY
/*

Once you've "debugged" your SYMNAMES statements, you can use them in DFSORT and ICETOOL statements.