IBM Mainframe Forum

Hello friends
1. I have a file containing records of length 80.i want to retrieve some characters let us take from 25 column to 29 th column .can i sort utility if yes how or any other utilities are there.
2.Which sort is efficient internal sort or external sort.how ?

1. If I understood correctly, yes you can use SORT product. To name any other utility, for one, FileAid can be your choice .

Suggest you show us a rather practical example of input records, expected output and the rules to get the output. Please tell us the LRECL and RECFM of the input/output files.

Which sort product do you use? If you're not sure to determine if you're using DFSORT (from IBM) or Syncsort (from Syncsort, Inc), run the PGM=ICEMAN JOB, actually any PGM=SORT or PGM=ICEMAN JOB. Look at the SYSOUT output. If it has ICExxxs messages, you're using DFSORT. If it has WERxxxs messages, you're using Syncsort.

2. Answer is... it depends. In "back-end" sort product at your shop will be invoked anyways.

1. I have a file containing records of length 80.i want to retrieve some characters let us take from 25 column to 29 th column .can i <use> sort utility if yes how or any other utilities are there.

If you just want columns 25-29 in the output data set, you can use these DFSORT control statements:



If you're not familiar with DFSORT and DFSORT's ICETOOL, I'd suggest reading through "z/OS DFSORT: Getting Started". It's an excellent tutorial, with lots of examples, that will show you how to use DFSORT, DFSORT's ICETOOL and DFSORT Symbols. You can access it online, along with all of the other DFSORT books, from:

http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss? ... g3T7000080

2.Which sort is efficient internal sort or external sort.how ?

The following discussion in "z/OS DFSORT Tuning Guide" might help explain the concepts involved:

http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/ ... 0528173317