>So what's so special about 80? 9, 41 and 44 are unique in the entire set of >sort control statements, and 80 also doesn't appear, yet replacing 44 by 80 >results in incorrect output.
>I've gone over it again and again, but I'm totally clueless, unless this is >one of those bugs that nobody's encountered before(*). >So, if someone can confirm the problem, or that this is a case of Edgar >Allan Poe's "The Purloined Letter", i.e. so obvious that it hides in plain >sight, please reply to this post! Robert, Let me start off with "It is NOT a BUG" and the obvious is right in front of you. As a data owner you SHOULD be in a better position to tell as to what is so special about the data at position 80. To explain what is so special about 80. Open the input dataset in browse/edit mode Issue the command F '+' 44 ALL then make a note of where exactly you are finding the specified character. Also Make a note of the number of times the character is found. (5 times) Hint : It is found on the FIRST line of the boxed data skipping the first set of data Now issue the same command but changing the position to 80 F '+' 80 ALL Also make a note of how many number of times the character is found (9 times) Hint : It is found on the FIRST/SECOND/THIRD line of the boxed data starting with the first set of data. DFSORT is merely doing what you wanted it to do. So I am not sure comparing a 5 time found data with 9 times found data is correct. Btw the control cards can be optimized and I am not even sure as to why you need a numeric conversion for simply sticking a constant value of 0120 ? Not sure how it passed your high "coding standards" INREC IFTHEN=(WHEN=INIT,OVERLAY=(364:+120,ZD,LENGTH=4)), should be as simple as INREC IFTHEN=(WHEN=INIT,OVERLAY=(364:C'0120')), Similarly when using the substring format and searching for multiple characters, it is advisable to have a comma so that it is easy to understand and maintain. (44,1,SS,EQ,C'+|') should be (44,1,SS,EQ,C'+,|') This is explained in the 2nd bullet here https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSLTBW_2.4.0/com.ibm.zos.v2r4.icea100/substr.htm And just for the record, the job can be optimized and can be done easily. Thanks, Kolusu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
