IBM Mainframe Forum

Hi,

I have converted sequential file from VB to FB and i would like to know how to check the Maximum record length of the FB file. is there a way or utility which i can use in JCL to get the record length as i have 1000+ files which are being converted and this is a repeat process.

Thank You,
Dhansr.

in order to carry on a conversion from VB to FB You are supposed to know the FB record length

also a FB dataset DOES NOT HAVE a maximum record length
so what is that You want to check ...

i would like to know how to check the Maximum record length of the FB file

The maximum record length of a FB (fixed block) data set will be the same as the minimum record length will be the same as the LRECL you specified. The "fixed" in "fixed block" means the record length does not change -- ever. So if you are wanting to check the maximum record length, either you did not create a fixed block data set or you do not understand what FB means, or both.

There is no easy automated way to see what the record lengths are for 1000+ files, nor is it clear why you want an automated way to do this. You can use ISPF or DCOLLECT reporting or ISMF or (if your site has it) SAS or a REXX to generate a listing of data sets with LRECL, but then you have to manually eyeball the report to see the LRECL values.

These users thanked the author Robert Sample for the post:

dhansr (Fri Jan 26, 2018 7:46 am)

a bulletproof way would be to extract for each VB dataset the maximum REAL record length
and generate automatically the conversion jobs and control cards

Hi All,

Thanks for the response, just to provide more clarity, currently i have a physical sequential VB file with LRECL defined as 32760. On manual inspection of these files we found that the data is usually around 80 to 120 characters only "varying by files". we want to write only the real record length data to the VB file and not the complete 32760 length. we will not be able to do manual inspection of each file to get that length, so trying to find out if there is a systematic way of determining the REAL record length in the files.

Thank You,
dhansr.

If you have SAS available, it can be used to find the longest length record. Otherwise, if your site runs SYNCSORT the HISTOGRAM utility will provide you with record length information.

If neither of these options is available, you could write a program (COBOL would work well for this) to determine the longest record for each data set.

These users thanked the author Robert Sample for the post:

dhansr (Fri Jan 26, 2018 7:45 am)

DFSORT ICETOOL statement:
STATS FROM(DD1) ON(VLEN)
will tell you

These users thanked the author willy jensen for the post:

dhansr (Fri Jan 26, 2018 7:45 am)