IBM Mainframe Forum

I have a document that I would like to transfer to either a PDS or regular dataset. I can get the transmission to work using the 3270 Emulator's File Transfer (IND$FILE), but the data in the file is in the wrong format and can't be read. I created the document as a .csv & .prn, but that didn't help. I'm not sure if the document needs to formatted in a certain way before it's transmitted up to the mainframe. Any inforamtion on this question is greatly appreciated.

Please explain what is Xcel? I'm not familiar with that package, although I've heard of Xcel Energy and Xcel wetsuits.

A CSV file transfers just fine to the mainframe -- what parameters did you use for the transfer? Data on the PC is in ASCII and must be EBCDIC on the mainframe. You must also have some way to convert the comma delimited format to a fixed length format for most mainframe programs.

Hi Robert

Thanks for the quick respnose. The document was created using MicroSoft Excel. These are the parameters that I'm using for the transfer.

IND$FILE PUT 'tbriran.opcweek' ASCII CRLF RECFM(F) LRECL(80)

Terminology is absolutely critical to IT. If you mean EXCEL, you need to say EXCEL -- using Xcel indicates (1) you are NOT using Excel but something else -- many software packages have similar names for marketing purposes, and (2) you are not willing to be clear about what you are doing, which vastly complicates the task of anyone attempting to assist you. Did you really save enough from not putting the 'E' in Excel to justify confusing everyone reading your post?

Your problem almost certainly is due to the parameters you are transferring the file with. CSV is not a fixed format, and unless your Excel columns are very small (or there are not very many of them), you are most likely overflowing the 80 byte lines and going to the next line -- which really, really, really messes up a CSV file. If you have to make it fixed (and CSV files usually are not fixed length), make it 1000 or something large enough to hopefully handle the longest combination of column lengths in your data.