>>John Roberts has resolved your problem. You need a reusable zero-th >>step that sets the return code.
Something I have done before is create a little program that accepts as PARM a list of comma separated values, like: //S000 EXEC PGM=TESTPARM,PARM='&SYM,CAT,DOG,COW,MOOSE,SQUIRREL' The program splits the PARM string into an array. It then compares the zero-th positional parameter against all the others and sets the RETURN-CODE to the index of the first match found, or 99 if there was no match. In my example, if &SYM was COW, the return code would be set to 3. Doing it this way you have a general purpose utility program and you do not need a special purpose program with the allowable symbolic values compiled within. Of course I don't have the source for this anymore - I left it behind probably 10 engagements ago. But I am sure some lister could recreate in a few minutes. John ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN