Creating multiple unsorted data sets

If you want to create unsorted copies of an input data set, you can use ICETOOL's COPY operator. The COPY operator does not require any DFSORT statements. However, you can supply DFSORT statements (for example, INCLUDE, OMIT, INREC, OUTREC, or OUTFIL) if appropriate.

Here are a couple of examples of COPY operator statements with their accompanying JCL statements:

//TOOLIN DD *
  COPY FROM(ALL) TO(D1,D2,D3)
  COPY FROM(ALL) TO(P1) USING(COPY)
/*
//ALL DD DSN=A123456.SORT.BRANCH,DISP=SHR
//D1 DD DSN=A123456.SORT.COPY1,DISP=OLD
//D2 DD DSN=A123456.SORT.COPY2,DISP=OLD
//D3 DD DSN=A123456.SORT.COPY3,DISP=OLD
//P1 DD SYSOUT=*
//COPYCNTL DD *
   INCLUDE COND=(16,2,CH,EQ,C'CA')
/*

The first COPY operator creates identical copies of A123456.SORT.BRANCH in A123456.SORT.COPY1, A123456.SORT.COPY2, and A123456.SORT.COPY3.

The second COPY operator prints the A123456.SORT.BRANCH records for the branches in California. Note that only the character fields in the resulting printed output will be readable. You will learn how to display numeric fields in readable format later in this chapter.

Because copying is more efficient than sorting, you should use the COPY operator rather than the SORT operator when possible.