EXECIO with VB datasets

[Brenton, Ren]

I've tried researching this, but have had no luck. In REXX is there a way to interrogate the RWD of a VB dataset? I have a request to copy n number of BYTES, from a VB dataset to another dataset. Easily done in REXX with FB data, but with VB data, it is a little harder. The easiest thing, I've decided is to look at the RWD to determine the number of bytes in each record. However I cannot figure out how to get EXECIO to include the RDW data. I don't have to use EXECIO, I could write a quick little COBOL that can look at the RDW to do the work for me, but I prefer to do it all in REXX. PS: The dataset is BLKSIZE(27998) LRECL (27899) RECFM(V B).



Originally, I tried a straight allocation:



"ALLOC FI(INPUTDD) DA("myinput") SHR REUSE"

"EXECIO * DISKR INPUTDD (STEM X. FINIS"



Do i = 1 to 10

Say Substr(X.i,1,80)

End



No RDW.



So then I changed the ALLOCATION to:



"ALLOC FI(INPUTDD) DA("myinput") SHR REUSE",

"RECFM(V B)",

"LRECL(27899)",

"BLKSIZE(27998)"



No RDW



So then I added 4 bytes to the LRECL;



"ALLOC FI(INPUTDD) DA("myinput") SHR REUSE",

"RECFM(V B)",

"LRECL(27903)",

"BLKSIZE(27998)"



Still no RDW



Is there any way to accomplish this with REXX (with or without EXECIO)?



Thanks in advance.





Ren Brenton

IT- Applications Development Analyst III

MPD Excellence

Black Knight Financial Services

601 Riverside Ave.,

Jacksonville, FL 32204

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[Lee, Bill]

What if you used RECFM=U? Would that work?

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[Ward Able, Grant]

Ren,
"LENGTH(X.i)" in your DO loop should give you the length of each record. You may need to fiddle a bit with the numeric format (C2X ?) to get it to be 2-bytes hex data prefixed by 2-bytes '0000'x, i.e. the record descriptor word.


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[Don Imbriale]

Why do you need the RDW? If you just read a record you can use REXX
functions to determine the length of the record read.

On Thu, Feb 26, 2015 at 11:13 AM, Brenton, Ren <Ren.B...@bkfs.com> wrote:

[Roger W. Suhr]

Hi,

The record length should be the length of the variable you retrived,

So for STEM X., you may do a "len = Length(x.{entry})". This would give you the length of that record.
Try it out. It's not the true record length (RDW length of 4 bytes is NOT included), but if you need that you just add 4 to length(x.{entry}).
Len = length(x.{entry}) + 4
Voila!

Have fun

Roger

[Evans, James R. , RET-DAY]

Or perhaps you could use the IBM REXX Stream function package (free download, easy install). The package includes a CHARIN function which allows you to specify the number of characters to read from a dataset/stream. With this function package (which includes many handy I/O functions), EXECIO is a last resort.

-----Original Message-----
From: TSO REXX Discussion List [mailto:TSO-...@VM.MARIST.EDU] On Behalf Of Don Imbriale
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2015 11:32 AM
To: TSO-...@VM.MARIST.EDU
Subject: Re: [TSO-REXX] EXECIO with VB datasets

[Brenton, Ren]

Don, thank you. The solution was to simply ask length of the record, LENGTH(X.i), in the DO loop of my example. It returns the length of each record (without the 4 byte descriptor). Perfect. Once I get the number of bytes I need, I LEAVE the loop, and knowing the record count, I can then copy that number of records to my new dataset.

Thank you all for your suggestions.

Ren
Ext. 1448

[Paul Gilmartin]

On 2015-02-26, at 10:15, Brenton, Ren wrote:

> Don, thank you. The solution was to simply ask length of the record, LENGTH(X.i), in the DO loop of my example. It returns the length of each record (without the 4 byte descriptor). Perfect. Once I get the number of bytes I need, I LEAVE the loop, and knowing the record count, I can then copy that number of records to my new dataset.
>

Perhaps simply by 'EXECIO' number 'DISKW ...'

On 2015-02-26, at 09:25, Lee, Bill wrote:

> What if you used RECFM=U? Would that work?
>

Works for z/OS 2.1 (and presumably higher). It may not be
the most direct solution to the original problem.

-- gil

[richard rozentals]

Hi, In the past(over 20 years ago) I used SORT to extract the first 4 bytes. As per my memory it was in the Syncsort manual.
Richard Rozentals 

[Roger W. Suhr]

Hi,

Like many higher level programming languages (COBOL, PL/1), REXX does not
give the programmer access to the RDW, but it sets the length of the record
retrieved as the variable length when using the (STEM x.) variant of EXECIO.
EXECIO is of course environment dependent, and I only know it's use in z/OS
(MVS); I'm not sure if it works in z/VM CMS the same way. This has been
working like this since the porting of REXX to MVS (from VM). I also don't
like to use STACK I/O, so I'm not sure how this would work if you'd use that
variant of the EXECIO command.

To write variable record datasets you need to allocate them as RECFM=VB,
LRECL={longest anticipated record length}, up to 32767 (minus 4 for the RDW;
that is the highest positive number fitting in 2 bytes x'7FFF'). (I believe
z/OS 2.1 and above allow you now the work with RECFM=VBS records, so the
record length can be larger. The only limit I know of at this point is; how
much virtual storage you have available in your TSO session (REGION). (I
haven't really tried that yet, so there may be some other hang ups.). When
you use the DISKW parameter and the STEM x. variant, EXECIO will use the
length of the current variable (e.g. x.{array entry number}, to set the RDW
correctly (It's essentially using the QSAM access method in z/OS). There is
no way for the programmer to "fiddle" with the RDW, and that is good!

Thank you

Roger

-----Original Message-----
From: TSO REXX Discussion List [mailto:TSO-...@VM.MARIST.EDU] On Behalf Of
Paul Gilmartin
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2015 11:27 AM
To: TSO-...@VM.MARIST.EDU
Subject: Re: [TSO-REXX] EXECIO with VB datasets

[Hobart Spitz]

With VB, the record lengths (as reported by REXX length() ) might not be
the max possible, as determined by the LRECL. So if you want to get the
actual LRECL, for example if you are (re)allocating a dataset, you can use
LISTDSI.

--
OREXXMan

[Robert Zenuk]

I had missed the ability to work with VBS in REXX in z/OS 2.1. It works great!

/* rexx */
"EXECIO * DISKR SMF (STEM SMF. FINIS"
ERC = RC
say smf.0 'records'
do i=1 to smf.0
say left(smf.i,80)
end
exit ERC

This opens several opportunities...

Thanks!

Rob

[Paul Gilmartin]

On 2015-02-26 16:23, Robert Zenuk wrote:
> I had missed the ability to work with VBS in REXX in z/OS 2.1. It works great!
>

What does it do with LRECL=X? I suppose it might be
limited only by available virtual storage.

Does it write and read equally well?

[Mickey]

Oh, COBOL does, you just have to fool it. You create an 01 level in your FD
with an occurs 0 to 1 depending on squat, set squat to -1, and presto,
you're walking backward through the buffer, and both RDW and BDW are
available.

The sad part is, I am old enough to remember doing this :(

Mickey

-----Original Message-----
From: Roger W. Suhr

[Steve Coalbran]

PL/1 too, I used to do it a lot!
Do they still use PL/1?! :-O

Såvida annat inte anges ovan: / Unless stated otherwise above:
IBM Svenska AB
Organisationsnummer: 556026-6883
Adress: 164 92 Stockholm

[Robin Ryerse]

The interesting aspect of this thread is how REXX maintains the length of
each and every variable it sets.

Consider how you would handle the following task. A file of variable length
records is wasting file space because certain records contain extraneous,
trailing data of spaces. Your task is to repair the file by removing the
trailing spaces from each record where 'record type' has the value of "xx".
A programmer with good knowledge of system utilities would not use REXX to
accomplish this task

-----Original Message-----
From: TSO REXX Discussion List [mailto:TSO-...@VM.MARIST.EDU] On Behalf Of

[Roger W. Suhr]

Hi,

Even that is easily accomplished in REXX by using the trim() function. With
that function you can remove tailing space from a variable. Another good
function is the substr() function which allows you to extract a substring
from a variable at the desired length.
What system utility would you suggest to use to accomplish this?

Roger

-----Original Message-----
From: TSO REXX Discussion List [mailto:TSO-...@VM.MARIST.EDU] On Behalf Of

Robin Ryerse
Sent: Friday, February 27, 2015 1:42 PM
To: TSO-...@VM.MARIST.EDU

[Roger W. Suhr]

I just read up on it when z/OS 2.1 was first released (Migration Guide). I haven't tried myself, but it really looks like available virtual storage is the only limit. For me it's interesting, because for the first time ever, I can read SMF records with REXX and actually get the whole record, no matter how long it is. How to use that ability is something I still need to figure out. ;-)

Roger

-----Original Message-----
From: TSO REXX Discussion List [mailto:TSO-...@VM.MARIST.EDU] On Behalf Of Paul Gilmartin
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2015 7:27 PM
To: TSO-...@VM.MARIST.EDU
Subject: Re: [TSO-REXX] EXECIO with VB datasets

[Pedro Vera]

> easily accomplished in REXX by using the trim() function

Likely, you meant the STRIP() function.



Pedro Vera
DB2 Admin Tool
http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/db2imstools/db2tools/db2admin/

[Roger W. Suhr]

Oops, yeah STRIP() is better for REXX, sorry TRIM() is another language.

Roger

-----Original Message-----
From: TSO REXX Discussion List [mailto:TSO-...@VM.MARIST.EDU] On Behalf Of
Pedro Vera
Sent: Friday, February 27, 2015 2:38 PM
To: TSO-...@VM.MARIST.EDU
Subject: Re: [TSO-REXX] EXECIO with VB datasets

[Thomas Berg]

The greatest parts of REXX is those you use without even think about...



Best Regards,
Thomas Berg
___________________________________________________________________
Thomas Berg Specialist zOS/RQM/IT Delivery Swedbank AB (Publ)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: TSO REXX Discussion List [mailto:TSO-...@VM.MARIST.EDU] On Behalf Of Robin
> Ryerse
> Sent: Friday, February 27, 2015 8:42 PM
> To: TSO-...@VM.MARIST.EDU

[Robin Ryerse]

Look at the specs closely. If this were your task as assigned by management,
they would not be concerned unless the file were quite large. Although REXX
would be efficient in identifying and repairing records, it would operate
poorly in handling the volume of records. SORT would be my utility of
choice.