IBM Mainframe Forum

Hi all,
I am new to here this is my first post in the forum .
I have input ESDS which is VB file in which certain fields should be masked with spaces........
So, how i can do this using FILE AID or any other utility
let starting position may be 10 and length is 15 of that field that should be masked.....!!

From my manual:

Replace by Location
The syntax of the REPL parameter when used to unconditionally replace data in a given location is:
REPL=(location,[dupl]new-data)
location : Starting location of the data to replace. Any valid actual or relative location can be used.
dupl : Optional duplication factor that defines the number of times File-AID repeats the new-data, starting at the specified location.
new-data : New data to place in the specified location. Any data format may be entered.

Example 1:

Example 1 copies the input dataset and replaces the data in location 4 of each record
with a character 6.

Hi Ed Goodman,

thanx for your reply,i have a idea about the Replace in fileaid but i don't know the correct syntax.
REPL = (4,10C' ')
does the above code will work if i want 10 spaces from 4th position onwards.......?
anyways i will try this.

Hi,
The above code worked for me but if i have to replace more than one fields than how i have to code
like in SORT we code OVERLAY = (1:12C' ' ,23:12C' '...... ) the same with REPL in file aid......?

Try REPL=(),REPL=(),

Seriously, set up some small test datasets and try things. You'll learn more.

Also, get yourself a copy of the manual, which IS available, no matter what you think.

Hi Ed Godman,
thanx for ur reply,
Ya i tried it earlier before ur post as the same u said using some sample datasets and i got the output as required but i forgotted to reply back here my fault.
thanx for ur concern and time.

awesome!

Please post your working code for the next poor programmer trying to make it work.

Hi,
The code which worked for me is...
$$DD01 COPY IF=(5,EQ,C'A'),
REPL=(5,C'1'),REPL=(6,C'2'),
REPL=(7,C' ') ,REPL=(8,C'2')

That's good that it worked.

I think, since the fields you showed were contiguous, that you could have used REPL=(5,C'A12 2').

(You actually posted with two replaces going to column 5, so not exactly sure)