> Can you set an a priori upper bound on the number of 'ABC' records? > Suppose you're confident that there are at most 1000.
Gil, Unfortunately that wouldn't work. If your input have less than 1000 records for the key 'ABC' and you code STOPAFT=1001, then it would read the entire file as we did not reach the STOPAFT limit. The parm STOPAFT is executed after the INCLUDE/OMIT. Check this link for processing order. https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSLTBW_2.4.0/com.ibm.zos.v2r4.icea100/ice2ca_DFSORT_processing_.htm#idg7073__stmtseq > This will select (some value of) N 'ABC' records plus 1001-N other > records. A second step can select the 'ABC' records from that smaller > data set. You don't need a second step as you can use STARTREC/ENDREC/ACCEPT parms on OUTFIL to select "n" number of records. Thanks. Kolusu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
