The data set defined by the $ORTPARM DD statement may contain PARM parameters and any of the sort control statements.
Parameters and control statements passed via the $ORTPARM DD statement generally override all others passed, whether the sort/merge is called from a program or initiated through job control language.
The $ORTPARM DD record format must be F or FB, and the record length must be 80 bytes. Labels are not allowed on $ORTPARM card images. Leading blanks are not required on a PARM card image, but at least one leading blank must precede a sort control statement keyword.
The $ORTPARM data sets must be formatted in accordance with the following rules:
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PARM specifications included in the $ORTPARM data sets must be specified before any sort control statement specifications.
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PARMS must be specified without the keyword PARM= and without quotation marks.
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A comma in columns 2-70 of a PARM card image followed by a blank, or a comma alone in column 71, may be used to indicate that the next record is part of the current statement. However, if the PARM specification is present through column 71, a continuation character must be specified in column 72 to indicate continuation.
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Comments may be included on $ORTPARM card images provided there is a blank between the last PARM specification and the comment. You may continue a comment by placing a continuation character in column 72 if there are no additional PARMs. In this case, the entire next card image will be considered a comment. If additional PARMs will follow the comment, you may continue that comment by coding an asterisk (*) in column 1 of the next card image.
The following example of a $ORTPARM data set illustrates the conventions for defining the $ORTPARM data set.
The $ORTPARM data set in the previous example overrides the options set in the associated invoking program (or job control stream) to sort 500 records from the input file. These will be the first 500 records that meet whatever criteria have been set by the original application (which might include, for example, the INCLUDE/OMIT control statement). BMSG turns on the WERnnnB message set, so that the processing accorded these 500 records is fully documented. EQUALS preserves the order of equal-keyed records from input to output.
The preceding example illustrates how to include control statements more than 80 bytes long; continuation card images are indicated by a blank field following an operand-comma combination.
In this example, the OUTFIL control statement in $ORTPARM overrides the OUTFIL control statement in SYSIN for file 3, and adds OUTFIL specifications for files 4 and 5.