IBM Mainframe Forum

Hi Friends,
I have 'N' number of files as shown below of LRECL=80 and RECFM=FB

USERID.FILENAME1.FILE
USERID.FILENAME2.FILE
USERID.FILENAME3.FILE
....
....

I have to combine the contents of all these files into one file 'USERID.COMBINED.FILE'. Everyday I have to combine 'N' number of files into a single file.

Can you please suggest a way to do this.

Thanks,
lal

You need to concatenate all of the required input datasets to the one SORTIN DD. What's the issue?

Hi MrSpock,
I guess I was not clear. We have 'N' number of these files 'USERID.FILENAME*.FILE' created by some other process. So we have to manually do 3.4 and get the list of these files and merge them into one file.

So is there any automated process to merge these files.

Thanks,
lal

See this previous topic for an example of a technique you can take advantage of. Unless you want to handle this programatically and use some dynamic allocation techniques, you'll need to create the dataset list, format it into proper JCL DD statements, and pass all of that into a second job that will actually use those DD statements.

Hello,

So is there any automated process to merge these files.

Merge has a specific meaning. A merge may be done with data that is in a common sequence.

Your requirement does not sound like a merge - it sounds like you simply want to create one file containing all of the data from multiple files in no particular sequence.

MrSpock,
The link you provided was useful and I followed the same approach of building entire SORTIN with the DSN names in a separate step and later included that member in my step to copy the contents of all the DSN's into one combined file.

Dick Scherrer,
I agree with your statement, it's not an merge but just copy of the files.

Thanks,
lal

Good to hear it is working - thanks for letting us know

d

Hi,
In my earlier reply I mentioned that "I followed the approach of building entire SORTIN with the DSN names in a separate job and later included that member in the different job to copy the contents of all the DSN's into one combined file."

So is there anyway I can build the dynamic SORTIN in the same job.

Thanks,
lal

Hello,

Not really as the jcl is parsed when the job starts and is not modified thereafter.

Thanks Dick Scherrer for the response

Thanks,
lal