IBM Mainframe Forum

looks like ISPF packed data to me

That would explain why he visually saw it correctly, but rexx 'saw' in the stored format.

Hello all,

Thank you for sharing your inputs and guidance.

1. I used ' !' for searching the statement indicator at 65th column so that I don't accidentally check some other comment/remark in any statement
2. I honestly didn't know how to do the ISPF VIEW so couldn't validate it earlier. I will find how to do it and use it going forward.

I ran the exec against a fair copy of the JCL and even the same JCL member and the TRACE output shows proper processing of the statement. This is truly a relief in one hand - to not be required to handle this complication programmatically but to ensure proper coding in all JCL members. On the other hand, in case the tool encounters such a JCL member (among 800+), it would not process it properly.

I need to come up with some check and balance to ensure i have processed all JCL elements with such a statement indicator. There are members that do not have the indicator also. So, this is getting interesting.

I will reach out once I make some progress on this. I believe I have received required guidance for my query. Please feel free to mark this conversation as 'solved', if required.

Thanks, again, for your timely guidance always.
Sivaguru