copybook compare

sumit agarwalla · New User Joined: 13 Nov 2008 Posts: 17 Location: hyderabad

i have got two similar copybooks with more than 400 fields.

copybook1
copybook2

copybook1 is populated with some initial data
copybook2 is populated with some updated data

Now i need to compare this two copybooks for any of 400+ field changes.

Is there any simple way to compare and get the changed field except for the
field by field comparison thing?

Binop B · Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 4:16 pm

Hi Sumit,

I guess there aint no single statement to do it...

Can we get the clarification on what u intend to do with the field ?

PeterHolland · Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 4:21 pm

A good Software Configuration tool could do the job.

dick scherrer · Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 8:45 pm

Hello,

Different people have understood your requirement differently

It is not clear if you want to compare the 2 copybook definitions or if the 2 copybooks are used inside a program and you want to compare the content of all of the fields named in both copybooks.

If the copybooks contain exactly the same fields in the same order and you want to compare the content within a program, your originial "IF" will identify when there is a difference. If you used reference modification, you could compare byte-by-byte and show the position of the first (or all) mismatches in the data. It would not be the field name, but would point to the position of the difference(s).

MBabu · Posted: Sat Mar 06, 2010 3:34 am

If you need to write the code, I'd use an edit macro to create the code for you. Just loop through the lines of the copybook and add the compare for each field. I had to do something like this on a few hundred fields recently and it only took a few minutes to generate the program that way.

sumit agarwalla · New User Joined: 13 Nov 2008 Posts: 17 Location: hyderabad

yes, the two copybooks contain exactly the same fields in the same order and i want to compare the content within the program.

I need to have the fields which are changed.
So,i can do a field by field comparison using the "IF" statement which is the only solution which is coming to my mind but that i have to do for all the 400 fields to check for each field.

I was wondering if there is any other way to compare each field in the first copybook to each field in the second copybook with the same layout.

Binop B · Posted: Sat Mar 06, 2010 2:08 pm

Hi Sumit...

You still haven't answered the query....

PeD · Posted: Sat Mar 06, 2010 7:33 pm

Do you have you a good idea of what a file on Mainframe is. Do you really know what a copybook is.
If you say that copybook1 and copybook2 are strictly the same then forget one of them, concentrate of the content of the files ( different values at various locations depending of copybook and use a compare software like SUPERC, DFSORT, SYNCSORT ( last two not striclty compare software ), COMPAREX, or ECOMP

That's all !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Binop B · Posted: Sat Mar 06, 2010 8:51 pm

Hi Pierre...

To be fair to the owner, I think he meant the content of the files only... and in his second post he has mentioned "within the program"..

MBabu · Posted: Sat Mar 06, 2010 11:32 pm

Also, a copybook is just a file containing one or more data structures (assuming it doesn't contain executable instructions).

It can be a mapping of a file, but by no means must be. It could be a system control block, a program control block, a mapping of any type of data such as input parameters, translatable strings or other types, arrays, or any other data structure. I realize that most COBOL code probably uses copybooks primarily for file mapping, but it isn't fair to accuse someone of ignorance because they might be using a copybook for something else. That would be like saying that an assembler DSECT or C structure can only be used for file mapping (they are exactly the same as a COBOL structure but are very rarely used for file mapping). The original question and followup do not mention files at all. I see no reason to suspect that this is a record compare problem.

mmwife · Super Moderator Joined: 30 May 2003 Posts: 1592

Hi Sumit,

Why don't you provide a view (5 or 6 entries) of each copybook, then show us the results of the compare you're looking to perform?

It might give us some insight to a solution.

Marso · Posted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 8:03 pm

If you want to display/store the field names, then there is not much choice: you have to have the 400 names listed somewhere:

Kjeld · Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 2:11 pm

In your ISPF is there a compare utility under option 3 Utilities.

Use that to compare the 2 copy members to list changed lines.

If your copybooks are added to a library system with version control, you might also use a function in the library system to identify changes.

If the 2 copybooks are from different origins (different field names) you might compare the memory mapping of each elementary item to identify where the structure differs.