'&' Character missing in ISREDIT LINE_AFTER

niks_jude · Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 12:08 am

I am trying to write a macro for expanding copybooks in COBOL. My cobol copybook contains the comment line -

enrico-sorichetti · Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 12:19 am

works for me

niks_jude · Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 12:40 am

Can u try the specific "M&E" case because the '&' with spaces around was working for me also. Extremely sorry I should have given that information too.

enrico-sorichetti · Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 12:49 am

use the format I showed int the first snippet

dbzTHEdinosauer · Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 1:03 am

& and other characters are hard to play with

i found that i needed to replace them with other characters (with translate),
do the line_after
and then do a edit macro change against the line inserted.

or simply do a change all with label range after the insertion is done.

apostrophies will also eat your lunch.

not at work now, but i used to have a list of char that could be found in cobol copybooks/source code that needed to be changed before the line_after/line_before, then a global change all when finished.

you can create your own list by creating a dummy copybook containing all char and see which give you a problem.

niks_jude · Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 1:05 am

Thanks a lot it worked with the first option you suggested. Though I am unable to understand the reason behind the same.

niks_jude · Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 1:09 am

Hi Dick,

You mean I should translate & and all other special characters that appear in my copybook before writing. And then after they are written replace them with the original ones. In this case what would I translate them into since I do not have choice of letters and numbers which would be appearing in the copybook along with these?

niks_jude · Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 1:14 am

OK got the answer I think you edited your post later. Still its a major problem I would say. Was just curious to know why REXX language producers never corrected it?

prino · Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 1:19 am

dbzTHEdinosauer · Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 1:20 am

i often used a pound sign: #
the at-sign: @
§ also works.

you can create a macro: called 'chgthis'

/*REXX*/
isredit macro
chg all '@' '&' /* at-sign back to ampersand */
chg all "#" "'" /* pound sign back to apostrophe/quote */
chg all '§' '"' /* § back to double quotes
exit

which you can invoke from your rexx script after you have inserted the lines.

how you go about changing the values in the stem variables is up to you.

dbzTHEdinosauer · Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 1:27 am

there are probably escape char that you can use,
but never found them,
did not look for them,
used my own method of substitution.

if you have more than 2 or three chars that give you trouble,
you may have to do each variable before the INSERT and then a change all on the line just inserted.

depends on how much garbage is in your copybooks.

that's the fun with writing these neat little tools, they need to be universal. (originally spelled it univeral - almost left if that way)

at my present site, we use endevor, and have 2 legs,
which means i can have copybooks comming from 7 potential libraries
need to have arguements
such as cobol type - batch, cics,
copybook library - unit, systems, acceptance, from 2 different legs and then prod.

Pedro · Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 1:39 am

niks_jude · Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 1:50 am

Hi Pedro,

Now I feel I can see the reason - When we pass variable in ISREDIT with brackets around it, its not scanned. Thanks.

Dick,
I think I will continue with what Enrico and Pedro have suggested, if still I encounter any problem I will have to go your way. Thanks a lot anyways.

dbzTHEdinosauer · Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 10:54 am

i use instead of line_before/line_after the ISREDIT COPY macro command nowadays inorder to skip the problem.

niks_jude · Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 11:16 am

Thanks can try even that and it is more specific to my need.

ravikanth · New User Joined: 12 Jan 2006 Posts: 29

Never tried the "SCAN OFF" but does it only work with double ambersand or even single ambersand? Thank you!