Difference bw PARM and SYSIN DD *

yaju4ever · New User Joined: 30 Sep 2006 Posts: 19 Location: mumbai

i can give input to our application program through PARM and SYSIN DD *.....so what is the differnece between both....and when should they be used....

cobolunni · Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2006 10:49 am

SYSIN DD is used incase of instream data such as those data that we needed
to pass when the program runtime eg:ACCEPT parm is used to pass value from JCL to cobol .In case of parm we had to declare variables at linkage section

nileshyp · New User Joined: 22 Jun 2005 Posts: 65 Location: Mumbai

1) using JCL with sysin. //sysin dd *here u code the parameters(value) to pass in to cobol program /* and in program
you use accept variable name(one accept will read one row)/.another way.
2) in jcl using parm statement ex: in exec statement parm='whatever' in cobol pgm u have to code linkage section in that for first value you code length variable and variable name say, abc pic x(4).it will take john inside to read next value u have to code another variable in the same way above mentioned.

krisprems · Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2006 6:21 pm

Normally there are several ways to code the same logic and some ways are better than the other in terms or size, effectiveness, readability and ease of modification.

IBM-MAIN: there is 100-character limitation on PARM size in JCL. but is not the same case with sysin dd *

this causes the main difference between them!

William Thompson · Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2006 6:34 pm

Lest we forget, symbolic parameters will work on parm but not instream data.

dnreddy · New User Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 8 Location: chennai

Through PARM only 100 characters we can send input, but by using SYSIN DD *
Can possible to send large amount of information.