Or IBM knows something that you do not.
-- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 ________________________________________ From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] on behalf of Paul Gilmartin [0000042bfe9c879d-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu] Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2023 10:38 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: JCL // SET SYMBOL indirection On Wed, 1 Feb 2023 00:20:26 +0000, Farley, Peter wrote: >Not necessarily what you may want, but this works: > >//SYM1 SET SYM1=VALUE1 >//SYM2 SET SYM2=VALUE2 > >//TARGET SET TARGET=&SYM1 > >//RESULT SET RESULT=&TARGET (and end up with &RESULT being set to VALUE1 >and not SYM1) > >I know Gil will complain the observed JCL symbol behavior (assigning the value >of (a) previously defined symbol(s) to another symbol) is not documented (and >it is not), but it definitely works. I use this technique all the time in my >application testing JCL. > Yup. I have complained in these pages that every possible construct should either be documented as supported or result in a JCL error. In reply, Peter Relson has sneered at me, saying that I simply don't understand that constructs not documented but allowed should be regarded as for IBM internal use, comparable to undocumented macro parameters, or reserved for future extensions. JCL feels qualitatively different to me; undocumented constructs should at least result in warnings, or there should be a "PRO" option on the job statement, in the absence of which undocumented constructs should be reported as JCL errors. But, like you, I experiment: // SET SYM3='&SYM1 &SYM2' /* No substitution -- it's documented. */ But: // SET Q='&' // SET SYM3=&Q&SYM1 &SYM2&Q /* Substitution performed -- hardly documented. */ But there may be errors reported for using &SYM3 elsewhere, as in PARM=... These behaviors should be documented, but IBM doesn't care. -- gil ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
