MAINFRAME / JCL /
STATEMENTS

In JCL every line which is not commented out or empty, is a statement.

A JCL line is 80 characters long from which a statement is read in the first 72, beginning from the very first character, even if that is a space. The JCL does not evaluate characters after the 72th character. It is possible to inject some commenting information after the 72th character, e.g. <== TEXT TEXT TEXT.

Not JCL statements:

• in‑stream data (after DD *)

• comments (//*)

• empty lines

The statements are divided into sections:

• name

• operation

• parameter

EXAMPLE FOR JCL STATEMENTS:

The name section of the statement:

• maximum 8 characters, containing A..Z, 0..9, @, #, $

• defines a name for the statement line

• this name is needed by the executed program or other operations but if not, any names can be used

• not obligatory if the operation does not need it (usually there is in JOB statements but in DD statements it is usually missing)

• the // at the beginning is obligatory

The operation section defines the type of the statement (analogue with DOS commands). The operations are defined in STEPLIB, JOBLIB or system load-libraries.

The parameter section contains a key=value pair or multiple pairs. Keys:

• DSN=… (dataset name)

• DISP=… (disposition)

• PGM=… (name of program)

• &SYSUID., ... (symbolics)

• * (in‑stream data, only for a DD statement)

• PARM='…' (options)

Separation of multiple keys:

• KEY=VALUE,KEY=VALUE

• KEY=VALUE, KEY=VALUE (preferred)

• KEY=VALUE , KEY=VALUE

The order of the parameters is indifferent.

If a parameter contains more values, the value set is written in brackets, and their order is important (e.g. DISP parameter).

The PARM value in quotes is space-sensitive.

EXAMPLE FOR FULL JCL STATEMENTS:

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