Find a value in a GDG

[rickvbvb]

Hello all,

I am starting simple...I have a file which is a member of a GDG index. It looks like it was the destination of a formatted report -- the data is formatted nicely. It is obviously a flat file.

I have a value that is input from the terminal operator, that I want to find in one of the columns using REXX.

Thanks for your help!
Rick

 

[rexxhead]

Investigate POS and WORDPOS in your REXX manual. You may also need PARSE if you will want to extract related data.


Frank Clarke
Tampa Area REXX Programmers' Alliance
REXX Language Assn Listmaster

 

[rickvbvb]

Thanks for the info, Frank.

Pardon my ignorance, but can you point me in the right direction about how to get information out of the GDG? At any one point in time when the REXX executes, I don't know which index member is the (0) version, and I would want to find that in the REXX Exec. Nor do I know the steps necessary to read a record out of the file, or to just search for the string in the file, as I would in ISPF using a FIND.

I wish I had the time to RTFM from cover to cover...and the FINE manual I do have has no real examples!

Thanks again,
Rick

 

[rexxhead]

OK. Pop on over to

http://web.tampabay.rr.com/mvsrexx/REXX/getgdg.txt

and get a copy of the code there. This is callable as a subroutine, or you can just hijack the technique. Now you know the full dataset name of the current generation.

Several of the routines on

http://web.tampabay.rr.com/mvsrexx/REXX/

illustrate the use of EXECIO which you can use to read and write the contents of the dataset. SPACERPT might be a good one.

PARSE is almost a language in itself, but it's very easy to get it to work even if it works klunky. When you develop fluency with PARSE you can do nearly anything.

Trace your test runs and watch how your code actually operates. This is the second-best teaching method for REXX.


Frank Clarke
Tampa Area REXX Programmers' Alliance
REXX Language Assn Listmaster

 

[sneeland]

What about this version:

/* REXX */
/* */
/* BROWSE 'PROD.HRS.HRS305W.XHRISS(0)' */
/* */

$DSN = "PROD.HRS.HRS305W.XHRISS"

/*-- LIST ALL GDG ENTRIES FOR THIS DATASET. --*/
Q = OUTTRAP(DATA.)
"LISTC ENT('"||$DSN||"')"
Q = OUTTRAP(OFF)

/*-- DETERMINE THE CURRENT GDG DATASET NAME --*/
$REC = DATA.0 -1
PARSE VAR DATA.$REC . . $NAME
SAY 'NAME==>' $NAME


I've used this for years and it seems to get me the (0) version of the GDG dataset name just fine.

Steve