MVSFORUMS.com

Manick · Beginner Joined: 24 May 2010 Posts: 6 Topics: 3

Hi,

I have a dataset of length 133 and i need to read the contents only upto column 72 from it. Is there anyway to do it using Edit macros or REXX?

expat · Posted: Thu May 27, 2010 4:13 am Post subject:

Yes.
_________________
If it's true that we are here to help others,
then what exactly are the others here for ?

Manick · Beginner Joined: 24 May 2010 Posts: 6 Topics: 3

Can you please let me know the macro or the REXX Command to get this done?

Nic Clouston · Posted: Thu May 27, 2010 6:47 am Post subject:

read the record into a variable
use substr bif to replace the variable with the first 72 bytes

e.g

expat · Posted: Thu May 27, 2010 6:48 am Post subject:

Please explain in a little more detail exactly what it is that you wish to accomplish, because with the information given in your original post it just begged for a YES/NO answer, which I happily gave.

Do you wish to retain the original dataset in its untouched state (recommended) or do you want to butcher that dataset - hopefully backed up beforehand.

What have you tried so far

My preferred method would be to read the original dataset into a stem, and then substring the records into a new output dataset, thus retaining the data integrity of the original input.
_________________
If it's true that we are here to help others,
then what exactly are the others here for ?

Manick · Beginner Joined: 24 May 2010 Posts: 6 Topics: 3

Hi Nic and expat,

Thanks for your replies. I used the SUBSTR command and it worked fine. I just need to read the records in to a STEM and then do some process on it. One of them is to remove the data after the 72nd column.

I did as Nic explained, by moving it to a variable and then use the SUBSTR command and it worked fine.