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bauer

Hi,

following problem:

From a job a JCL PROCEDURE named PROCA is called with parameters.

example:

STEP10 EXEC PROCA, PARM='a,b,c'

Implementation of PROCA

PROCA PROC, PARM=,........
EXEC PROCB, PARM=&PARM

Implemenatation of PROCB

PROCB PROC, PARM=, .........
EXEC PROGRAM, PARM=&PARM

Passing the parameters as PARM='a,b,c' results to JCL Error, IEFC640I EXCESSIVE NUMBER OF POSITIONAL PARAMETERS ON THE EXEC STATEMENT.

The aphost. gets lost calling PROCB from PROCA, parameters for PROCB are PARM=A,B,C,............ JCL Error of course.

Using the syntax PARM=(A,B,C) (as explained in IBM's JCL Guide) results in the Problem, that the parameters for PROGRAM are (A,B,C). The parenth. are part of the PARM String. PROGRAM does not process the parentheses.

Has anybody a solution ?

Thanks for answer.

kolusu · Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2004 11:33 am Post subject:

bauer,

A couple of corrections. You cannot use 'PARM' as a symbolic name. so you need to define it something else let us say PRM.

Now if you want to enclose a quote then you can do by enclosing the parm in 3 quotes.

If you want the parm='a,b,c' then you need to code like this.

bauer · Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2004 11:59 am Post subject:

kolusu,

passing the parameters using '''a,b,c''' passes the parameters from jcl to jcl proca, but passing then the parameters from proca to procb doesn't work.

Using '''(a,b,c)''' doesn't work.

The problem is, what the called program in PROCB doesn't process parentheses.

The next problem is (in my opinion), what there are several level of jcl procedures. All solutions with ''' etc. work only with one level. Nested JCL Procs seems toi be a problem.

Sorry, what I cann't agree with your solution, but thank you for your quick reply.

Regards,
bauer

kolusu · Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2004 12:20 pm Post subject:

bauer,

I missed the part that you are calling another proc within a proc.ok here is the solution for the passing parms to nested proc.

PROCA:

bauer · Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2004 1:08 am Post subject:

kolusu,

thank you very much for your reply.

Your solution works, but the program, called from PROCB, in your example the SORT program, doesn't accept the parentheses. The parentheses are part of the passed parameters, this is the problem.

The checked the JCL documentation, did some testing with different combinations of parentheses and aphostrops. But no solution.

We change now the called program to accept the parentheses.

If the called program is an IBM Tool, software from third party etc. and dosn't accept the parentheses (like IBM PL1 Compiler, Version 2.3), is this situation there is an big problem dealing with nested JCL procs.

regards,
bauer