Charles, I do not think that you need to get as complicated as Rob did.
#1. Within a quoted string on a SET command, it treats "&FOO" as a part of your string, not a symbol. #2. I do not think it is necessary to put the single quote into a symbol. I created the JCL (listed below) and did a couple of test runs. The REXX program just reads in the argument passed without changing it and writes it out again. a) When I ran it with the "READARG" step with; PARM='%READARG &BAR1' It Returned: Argument:/my/lower/case/uss/folder/&FOO./ b) When I ran it with; PARM='%READARG &BAR2.&FOO./' it returned: Argument:/my/lower/case/uss/folder/my FOO tops yours/ So as you can see, syntax checking and substitution processing is different between SET and the PARM= If you are wondering about the period (.) at the end of the symbol name, that is a habit I got into some time ago, it indicates the end of the symbol name and it avoid complications. Back when z/OS 1.6 or 1.7 came out, it added support for performing a substring on the value of a symbol in a JOB and coding "&DSN1(0)" to reference a GDG data set caused problems where "&DSN1.(0)" worked. //** //FOO SET FOO='my FOO tops yours' //BAR1 SET BAR1='/my/lower/case/uss/folder/&FOO./' //BAR2 SET BAR2='/my/lower/case/uss/folder/' //** //** //GENER EXEC PGM=IEBGENR //SYSIN DD DUMMY //SYSPRINT DD SYSOUT=* //SYSUT1 DD DATA,DLM=$$ /* ---------------- REXX -- TSTSYM --------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------ */ PARSE ARG InVar ; Say "Argument:"InVar; $$ //SYSUT2 DD DISP=(,PASS),UNIT=SYSDA,VOL=SER=, // DSN=&&TMPEXEC(READARG), // SPACE=(TRK,(1,1,1)), // RECFM=VB,LRECL=256,BLKSIZE=32760 //* //READARG EXEC PGM=IKJEFT01,PARM='%READARG &BAR2.&FOO./' //SYSPROC DD DISP=(OLD,DELETE),DSN=&&TMPEXEC //SYSTSPRT DD SYSOUT=* //SYSTSIN DD DUMMY -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Charles Mills Sent: Friday, December 12, 2014 3:16 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Help please with symbols in a lower-case SET operand How the heck do I do this? I have a variable symbol &FOO that has been set to a value. I want to include it in another set symbol like so // SET BAR=/my/lower/case/uss/folder/&FOO./ If I quote the operand it seems like &FOO does not get substituted. If I don't quote the operand JCL barfs on the lower case letters. Help! Charles ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
