IBM Mainframe Forum

I want to use Compare Utility of File Manager.


I know normally use to compare two files without excluding.

But i would like to compare with a copy and removing fields.

I know it's "edit template" but after ?

thanks for help

That is a bear to set up. I'm hoping you are using the same version as me, and that you are using TSO panels to set it up...

Select Utilities(3) then Compare (11)
First panel is Old file name and Old copybook/template
At the bottom, under Processing Options, select Copybook/Template usage = 1 (Above)
Press Enter
Second panel is New file name and New copybook/template
At the bottom, under Processing Options, select Copybook/Template usage = 1 (Above)
Press Enter
Next panel is "Compare Utility : Options"
For Compare type, select Formatted (2)
For Processing Options, select "Edit template mapping"
Press Enter
Next Panel is "Field Mapping"

If you are using the same copybook, then most of the fields will be correlated with new and old where the names are the same

To exclude a mapped field:
Select the field with 'S'
The next panel is "Old Field Mapping"
The very first selection is "D -- Delete "Old field" "
Select that, press Enter, and you'll see the "Old field . . . . . . :" line disappear at the top

Repeat that for each field you want to exclude.

When you run the comparison, those fields will not be included.


There are ways to save the exclusions from session to session so you can repeat the comparison. You have to make a template for the excluded fields, but I'll leave that for you to discover. We did that for a project I was on and it was extremely useful for a few months while we were trying to keep two revision branches in synch. We had a nightly process running compares so that I knew what to copy.