> -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of Howard Brazee > Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2008 10:11 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Compare files - with different date fields > > I'd like to create a compare job that will compare two files. > > One file should have the current date (YYYYMMDD) in columns 72-79 of a > 406 column record, but the other should have a different current date in > the same format. > > My user would like to not just ignore these dates, but have something > that shows him that the two files are identical, except one had 20080603 > and the other had 20080602 (or whatever) for the dates. I'd just > exclude those fields, and use TSO to exclude exceptions, but I'm not the > user. > > Any simple solutions?
I can tell you two "simple" two-comparison-pass solutions for two different data file compare products: Comparex and Insync. You will also need two additional passes with SORT (one per file) to finish the job. In each comparison product there is a parameter that tells the product to stop *reporting* differences after N have been displayed. Set this parameter to 1 and you will get 1 reported difference, but for both products the files will still be compared to EOF and the statistics at EOF will tell you how many records were different. For Comparex this would be "CONTINUE,MAXDIFF=1". For INSYNC you would use "MAXREPORT=1". You will need to make two comparison passes, one with the date field masked and no reporting limit and one without a mask and with the "report" value set to 1. The masked comparison pass will tell you if any field except the date field is different in any records. The unmasked pass will give you the report of the difference in the first record with a different date field and a count of differences that should be equal to the record count (I'm assuming here that all the records have the date field). HOWWEVER, of course this will not tell you if all the differences are for the *same* dates. You will need two more passes (one for each file) using MERGE FIELDS=(date field) combined with SUM FIELDS=(NONE) to determine if there is more than one date in each file. If the output of the merge pass is more than one record output from the merge pass then there is more than one date in each file. Hope that helps. Peter This message and any attachments are intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is privileged and confidential. If the reader of the message is not the intended recipient or an authorized representative of the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and delete the message and any attachments from your system. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
