To be honest I consider date-related variables as pooooooor when
compared to batch scheduler features, especially ControlM (it is not
advertisement, just opinion).
Justification:
More possibilities of when the date should be resolved. For example it
can be "accounting date" - job should prepare report for 21-sept, but
due to some events it was submitted day after. Etc. etc.
Date calculations. It can be "day before". Not just 21-1 (what happens
on 1st?), but real date for "yesterday".
Summary of days (i.e. daily datasets concatenation) for each month.
Despite it is 30 or 31 day. Or 28. Or 29.
...and more.
--
Radoslaw Skorupka
Lodz, Poland
W dniu 07.10.2023 o 20:42, Farley, Peter pisze:
I’ll admit I have NOT used symbol substitution in the “name” part (left of the
“=”) at all, only on the right (value) side, so the true answer is “I don’t
know”. Never had a reason to use substitution in the “name” part.
I personally haven’t had reason to use dynamic system symbols that could change
at midnight in production JCL, only in test JCL I was running during normal
daytime business hours, and usually only the “date” symbols like LYYMMDD, not
the “time” ones. If I had to use them in production JCL I would probably use
Michael Oujesky’s solution of assigning that system dynamic symbol once to a
private symbol name and then use the private symbol name everywhere else it is
needed.
I also have never had reason/need to use JCL continuation for the “value” part
of a symbol definition, all my symbols have fairly short values. I use a LOT
of symbols in my test JCL for easy flexibility of running tests varying
critical application parameter values and dataset names, with multiple symbols
for each different part of the standardly-named files. I can see that a symbol
definition using multiple other symbols for the value could exceed column 71,
but I haven’t had that need.
When I get a chance I will try the new feedback process.
Peter
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> On Behalf Of
Paul Gilmartin
Sent: Saturday, October 7, 2023 1:45 PM
To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: JCL symbols used to define other JCL symbols [was: RE: Is SMP/E
needed for installs?]
On Sat, 7 Oct 2023 09:41:56 -0700, Ed Jaffe wrote:
On 9/20/2023 8:23 AM, Farley, Peter wrote:
... JCL symbols as part of the definition of other JCL symbols works flawlessly
every time.
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