Cant get JCL SORT's Outfil to work

Question

I am learning mainframe programming (TSO, JCL, COBOL...) and I came across a problem I can't seem to solve, yet.

I have a file with records that contain 3 fields and I want to use 'outfil' to include only certain records in the output file.

My JCL is the following:

000001 //C8112J1  JOB (12345678),C8112,MSGCLASS=H, 
000002 //            MSGLEVEL=(1,1),NOTIFY=C8112 
(...)   
000007 //DSNDEL   EXEC PGM=IDCAMS 
000008 //SYSPRINT DD SYSOUT=* 
000009 //SYSIN    DD * 
000010   DELETE   C8112.DATA.FX.SORT 
000011   SET      MAXCC = 0 
000012 /* 
(...)
000014 //*                  --------- S O R T ----------- 
000020 //MYSORT  EXEC PGM=SORT,COND=(0,NE) 
000021 //SORTIN  DD DSN=C8112.DATA.FX,DISP=SHR 
000022 //SORTOUT DD DSN=C8112.DATA.FX.SORT, 
000023 //           SPACE=(TRK,(100,100),RLSE), 
000024 //           DISP=(NEW,CATLG,DELETE), 
000025 //           DCB=(LRECL=61,RECFM=FB) 
000026 //SYSIN   DD * 
000027   SORT    FIELDS=COPY 
000028 //* SORT  FIELDS=(1,18,CH,A) OU SORT=COPY 
000029   OUTFIL  INCLUDE=(1,18,CH,EQ,C'ANDRADE,LUISA') 
...
000031 //*       OUTREC=(39,41,1,18,19,38) 
000032   END 
000033 //SYSOUT  DD SYSOUT=* 
000034 /* 

and the output file:

000001 LUIS,CARLOS       AV.PAULO VI         RMR     
000002 DIAS,PATTY        RUA PEDRO CALMON    LX 
000003 ANDRADE,LUISA     AV. DA LIBERDADE    LX     (1)
000004 SILVA,TONI        PALACIO VALMOR      LX 
000005 ANDRADE,LUISA     AV. DA BOAVISTA     POT    (2) 
000006 CISCO,MANUEL      QUINTA DA AVELEDA   TC 

Wasn't I supposed to get only the records (1) and (2)?! By the way, I also tried the 'outrec' to change the bytes organization but it didn't work too. Can anyone give me a hint on what I am doing wrong?

Answer 1

Try the following:

  000020 //MYSORT  EXEC PGM=SORT,COND=(0,NE) 
  000021 //SORTIN  DD DSN=C8112.DATA.FX,DISP=SHR 
  000022 //SORTOUT DD DSN=C8112.DATA.FX.SORT, 
  000023 //           SPACE=(TRK,(100,100),RLSE), 
  000024 //           DISP=(NEW,CATLG,DELETE), 
  000025 //           DCB=(LRECL=61,RECFM=FB) 
  000026 //SYSIN   DD * 
  000027   SORT    FIELDS=COPY 
  000029   OUTFIL  INCLUDE=(1,18,CH,EQ,C'ANDRADE,LUISA') 
  ...
  000032   END 
  000031 /*
  000033 //SYSOUT  DD SYSOUT=* 
  000034 //* 

SORT SYSIN does not allow for "comments". Those lines you thought might have been comments really are't. They terminate the SYSIN DD statements. Basically I just got rid of:

//* SORT  FIELDS=(1,18,CH,A) OU SORT=COPY

and

//*       OUTREC=(39,41,1,18,19,38)

then it all works fine. Remember, a JCL comment is not a SORT comment! The stuff after a DD * are data, not JCL source statements so JCL type commenting conventions do not work here. The DD * is typically terminated by a line starting with: /*.

Answer 2

You can use a single * as a comment delimiter in DFSORT rather than //* - which, as has already been pointed out terminates the SYSIN just as if you'd coded /. (You indeed have a / later on, I notice.)