Replacing special characters with spaces in a file.

avaneendra_linga · New User Joined: 13 Dec 2006 Posts: 73 Location: Hyderabad

Hi,

i have special characters in input file .can you replace them with spaces.
only A to z and 0 to 9 are acceptable in my input records.

ex:
input:

012130*&12*345
*23234*4545*34
o2313)(ewwdsds

output:
012130 12 345
23234 4545 34
02313 ewwdsds

can we do this in SORT?

thanks & regards,
avaneendra.

ParagChouguley · Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 4:33 pm

Hi avaneendra_linga,

Do you have a list of special characters that could appear in your input file? The DFSORT job written below replaces special characters mentioned in your sample input. If you have special characters other than those you need to modify the job.

The JCL given below uses ALTSEQ. You can read more about it in "DFSORT Getting Started.pdf" available in this forum.

Frank Yaeger · Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 8:22 pm

avaneendra,

For more information on DFSORT's TRAN=ALTSEQ function, see the "Change all zeros in your records to spaces" Smart DFSORT Trick at:

www.ibm.com/servers/storage/support/software/sort/mvs/tricks/

If you're not familiar with DFSORT and DFSORT's ICETOOL, I'd suggest reading through "z/OS DFSORT: Getting Started". It's an excellent tutorial, with lots of examples, that will show you how to use DFSORT, DFSORT's ICETOOL and DFSORT Symbols. You can access it online, along with all of the other DFSORT books, from:

Use [URL] BBCode for External Links

dick scherrer · Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 9:34 pm

Hello avaneendra,

When there are multiple consecutive special characters (csc's) in the input data, do you want one space or as many spaces as there are csc's in the output?

Your example shows one space, but the suggested solution will create multiple consecutive spaces.