IBM Mainframe Forum

Good day to all, This is our first post so thanks in advance for your attention and help,

We have a user coding a Cobol E35 user exit for a DFSORT program with the COPY Option.
This is the SYSIN for the DFSORT program:

OPTION COPY,VLSHRT,SKIPREC=0,STOPAFT=99999999999
INREC FIELDS=(1,36,49,66,203,400,703,20,803,200,1403,16,
1603,256,2973,5130,723,50,1941,516)
MODS E35=(E35COBX1,65535,,C)
RECORD TYPE=V,LENGTH=(,4100,4100,4100,4100)
OUTFIL FNAMES=SORTOUT,
FTOV

The SORTIN FILE is PS-E FB LRECL=8102, The SORTOUT DD is coded with these attributes: RECFM=VB,LRECL=4104,DSORG=PS.

The user has reviewed in depth the documentation on how to code and use the Interface with the Exit, but all the SORTOUT records she obtains are of the same length (4100+4) ,padded with X'B2' from their "expected" length to the end of the record.

Could anyone used to work with the E35 exit in Cobol help us in determining where is the error and how to fix it?

Thanks.

Is the E35 trying to write V records? It can't. It must write F records. OUTFIL FTOV will be processed after the E35 and will convert the F records to V records for output. The RECORD statement should have TYPE=F and the lengths there are for the fixed-length records. Also VLSHRT will have no effect since the input is RECFM=F.

The actual processing of your records would go like this:

INREC - input records are F; reformatted records are F.

E35 - input records are F; returned records are F. Must use COBOL E35 interface for fixed length records.

OUTFIL - input records are F; output records are V. Use VLTRIM if you want to trim spaces or something else from the end of the records.

I don't know what you're actually trying to do, but you can't have the COBOL E35 produce V records from F records.

Thank you Frank, your reply describes perfectly the reason of the problem.