RE: Sort input file by arbitrary position/length

Jon, sounds like you're saying I should change the Cobol. I'm assuming the file spec will need to be different based on if the file is really keyed or not, like RPG. That's a possibility, even if my initial plan was not to change the Cobol. Keep in mind the input file is currently not keyed. I could generate the DDS and compile an LF on the fly, though. Thanks for your expertise!

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jon Paris
Sent: Tuesday, September 24, 2013 3:54 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Sort input file by arbitrary position/length

I agree with Buck - the COBOL program really needs a small tweak. It is reading in physical sequence because it has not been told it is a keyed file. RPG would do the same if the file were defined without the K in the F-spec.

You could either leave the existing file refs in place and add a new indexed file, or add indexing to the spec for the existing file.

I suspect that the COBOL program (as long as there is no actual START operation or anything else that uses a key) will not actually check if the key is in the spot specified - but telling it to use a key will make it request the data in keyed sequence. No guarantees as the COBOL compiler does some stuff just to ensure ANSI compliance - and since most systems don't have externally described files key location may be tested at run time but ...


On 2013-09-24, at 3:54 PM, Buck Calabro <kc2hiz@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On 9/24/2013 3:08 PM, Zak Metz wrote:

I have an existing COBOL application that cannot be changed, at least, let's say it can't.
The COBOL application accepts an input file of an arbitrary record length like so:
SELECT C1BMNAM
ASSIGN TO DISK-C1BMNAM
FILE STATUS C1BMNAM-FILE-STATUS
.
I want it to process the file sorted by a certain position/length (ZIP Code) determined at run time. But if I create an LF, it doesn't read it in order by key.
What I thought I could do was use OPNQRYF to do that sorting on the fly, something like:
OPNQRYF FILE((METZ3410/PF)) KEYFLD((*MAPFLD/ZIP)) MAPFLD((ZIP
'%sst(pf 133 5)')) OPNID(C1BMNAM) SEQONLY(*NO) OPNSCOPE(*JOB) That works for a file with one field. The COBOL is none-the-wiser.
But the input file might have multiple fields. All I know is the position/length.
Is there some way to make my MAPFLD substring the entire record without knowing what field the position/length actually falls into? I just want to substring the entire record.
Because the file may be very large, I do not want to take the performance hit of copying it to a single-field file. But if there were some other way to trick it...
Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions.

I never imagined a tagalong sort would be a good fit in 2013.

I still don't.

This seems like a utility of some sort. If you're satisfied with the
OPNQRYF solution, consider writing a front-end that programmatically
generates those specs and compiles the CLP.

Considering the amount of work you are going to be going through to
keep the existing Cobol program unchanged, for the sake of
completeness you ought to consider the amount of work it would take to
tweak the Cobol program instead.
--buck
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Jon Paris

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www.SystemiDeveloper.com




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