Regardinf FD entries for variable block

arindambanerjee · New User Joined: 30 Jun 2007 Posts: 39 Location: India

Hi friends,
i have an input file say payment file with FD entries as follows:

FD PAYMENT-FILE
RECORDING MODE IS V
[red] LABEL RECORDS ARE STANDARD[/RED]
RECORD IS VARYING FROM 1 TO 1988(OR SHOULD IT BE 4 TO 1992)
BLOCK CONTAINS 0 RECORDS
DATA RECORD IS PAYMENT-REC.
01 PAYMENT-REC PIC X(1988).

Now my ques is in jcl we will be declaring the DS as of length 1992 as it is variable block.
1. why are we leaving 4 bytes?
2.can we write LABEL RECORDS ARE STANDARD for variable block?
3. will the record is varying from clause be 1 to 1988/4 to 1992?i have tried with both but there is no difference in the o/p?whats the actual reason behind it?can you enlighten me regarding this?

murmohk1 · Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 5:51 pm

banerjee,

At the top of every page, you have 'manuals' link. Go thru COBOL manual for the answers.