MVSFORUMS.com

[misi01]

I found the following example online (the first COUNT is my attempt at changing the formatting of the results)

[William Collins]

Did you try A3 in place of A1?

[misi01]

Thanks William, that was what I was after.

I googled EDCOUNT A1 (hoping to find examples of other formatting options, such as A3) but can't seem to find anything.

Where can I find the various An formatting options?
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Michael

[William Collins]

In the ICETOOL chapter in the Application Programming Guide, they are listed in a table under the DISPLAY operator, with a reference to that in the documentation of the COUNT operator where it discusses EDCOUNT. There are more options than An as well, but they are not to be confused with the edit masks available for SORT (a separate table, with separate values).

[misi01]

Thanks William, found it
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Michael

[kolusu]

[misi01]

Kolusu

[William Collins]

We'd like you to look in the manual first. And when you're there, read more than one paragraph.

The tables of information can't be repeated at every point they are used. The manual is 956 pages (or whatever) already, and it would grow a lot if all the references were expanded.

Work out how the manual "works". There are specific examples, and more usage of most things if you use the search.

It's difficult to know how to answer sometimes, like this one. I couldn't work out how you'd found A1 but not found A3, so I was very unsure it was the answer you wanted, without having a clue as to why it wouldn't be. So I spent some time looking, getting nothing, and decided the only way to get further is to ask. I still don't know how you found A1 and didn't find A3

See things from the other side of the table as well.

[kolusu]

[misi01]

Kolusu, my append wasn't meant as a personal attack. I used to work for IBM as a software developer, visiting customers.
I remember some of the questions causing me to think "don't you know that, I thought everyone did"
My comment was an attempt to remind you that you work with dfsort every day and know it backward, we others don't.
We don't necessarily have the luxury of taking hours/days to solve a problem compared to appending in a forum.
If I have a solution (like some you have answered) that takes 3 steps, and solves my problem, I'm happy. YOU might point out (or ask) why you don't do it in one step? Simply because I don't know that it CAN be done in one. You do, but I might not.
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Michael

[misi01]

William/Kolusu. Than you both for your answers to my appends/questions.

All I can do is reiterate my comments. I'm a cobol developer. I use dfsort every so often, NOT often enough to become an "expert" and for that reason as soon as I do anything "unusual" (for me), I'll Google and try and find an answer. But sometimes, all your attempts/variations fail. That's when you need help.

I'm guessing you guys want to see dfsort spread as much as possible. You do that by helping us newbies.

Thanks again
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Michael

[kolusu]

[kolusu]

[misi01]

Kolusu - my apologies for what, in retrospect was an "angry" reply.

One thing I've realised reading the various appends is that, sometimes, the only limitation to dfsort is your imagination.

Again, in reality, many of us don't necessarily have the time to dig deeply into the many possibilities dfsort has.

You have to remember that someone might be able to put together a really complicated sort combination, but who's going to maintain it?
Don't laugh, but it's getting to the stage where I'm becoming one of the sort experts here at the bank


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Michael