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Nancy · Beginner Joined: 23 May 2003 Posts: 77 Topics: 26

This is the first time I am using Sort utility. What is the difference between Cobol Sort and Jcl Sort and Which one is better ? Please explain with examples.

kolusu · Posted: Fri May 23, 2003 5:40 am Post subject:

Nancy,

I personally do not prefer an cobol internal sort.The biggest disadvantage of using an cobol sort is you need to recompile the program whenever the sort sequence changes.I/O operations are slower.Maintanence is also an issue with programs doing internal sorts.Resources are held while sort phase occurs.Much more difficult to exploit the utility aspects of sort products (INREC, SUM, OUTREC, etc) from within a program.

External sorts on the other hand are easy to understand and maintain.You can use all the utility aspects(INREC ,OUTREC, SUM...).we now have DFSORT's ICETOOL which offers a wide variety of options and utilities that makes the programmer's life easier.You don't have to worry about the LRECL,BLKSIZES.

Sort utilities are highly tuned, EXCP driven, efficient data managing tools.

Hope this helps...

cheers

kolusu

Dibakar · Posted: Fri May 23, 2003 5:43 am Post subject:

Nancy,

I don't know the diffrerence but I guess JCL Sort (DFSORT/Syncsort etc) will be faster than a Cobol SORT. Also, if you have to mofify your search condition later on then its easy to do in DFSORT/Syncsort as you don't have to compile-link it.

Dibakar.

Nancy · Beginner Joined: 23 May 2003 Posts: 77 Topics: 26

Thanks kolusu and Dibakar.
Can you please post the examples also of each type of SORT ?

Dibakar · Posted: Fri May 23, 2003 7:23 am Post subject:

Nancy,

You will get plenty of example of JCL SORT in Utilities forum. I couldn't find any COBOL SORTs but any COBOL book will have examples for it.

Dibakar.

Nancy · Beginner Joined: 23 May 2003 Posts: 77 Topics: 26

Thanks !

Frank Yaeger · Posted: Fri May 23, 2003 11:41 am Post subject:

Nancy,

For some discussion about using COBOL sorts (with some examples) and JCL sorts with DFSORT, see:

http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr_OS390/BOOKS/ICECT103/6.0?DT=19980721191004

For examples of using DFSORT/ICETOOL, see:

http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr_OS390/BOOKS/ICECA109/10.0?DT=20020722140254

If you're new to using DFSORT, you might want to start with "Getting Started with DFSORT" at:

http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr_OS390/BOOKS/ICECG204/CCONTENTS

You can access all of the DFSORT books online at:

http://www.storage.ibm.com/software/sort/mvs/srtmpub.html

You can access the DFSORT website which has lots of examples, techniques, tricks, etc at:

http://www.ibm.com/storage/dfsort
_________________
Frank Yaeger - DFSORT Development Team (IBM)
Specialties: JOINKEYS, FINDREP, WHEN=GROUP, ICETOOL, Symbols, Migration
DFSORT is on the Web at:
www.ibm.com/storage/dfsort