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SyncSort Parameter Question


IBM Mainframe Forums -> SYNCSORT
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socker_dad

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Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Posts: 177
Location: Seattle, WA

PostPosted: Sat Oct 06, 2012 2:21 am
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I'm working with a SyncSort job, and came across the following line:

Code:
SORT FIELDS=(1,2,FI,A)


What is FI? The manual relates it to binary (BI), but doesn't go into any more detail.

The data in the field being sorted is (Zone/Digit format):
Code:
0123
0987


I would have used binary (BI), but maybe the FI is better?
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Bill Woodger

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Joined: 09 Mar 2011
Posts: 7309
Location: Inside the Matrix

PostPosted: Sat Oct 06, 2012 3:29 am
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FI is signed. Left-most bit 1, indicates negative. BI is same thing, but unsigned, left-most bit is part of any value.

If you have signed-binary, and you want the negative values first in the sequence, you'd need FI. If you have unsigned binary, then you should use BI, else a mess can ensue.

So, can your field be negative? Is is from Cobol without TRUNC(BIN), so the maximum value is 9999? Then you'd not notice the difference from the output.

FI may be slower to process as it would have to differentiate between + and -, which BI doesn't. Not of much significance, I'd guess.

I'd also go for BI, unless it is a signed field. Unless from Cobol with TRUNC(BIN), then you'd have more checking-up to do :-)
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socker_dad

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Location: Seattle, WA

PostPosted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 7:15 pm
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The field cannot be negative (it's a state/region id number), so it looks like FI and BI are both acceptable choices; however, BI would make more logical sense.

Thanks for the insight!
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