Continuation of operands 1

Continuation of operands 2

Continuation of comments

If a character other than an empty space is written in column 72 when comments are described after operands in a control statement that can have comments, it is determined that comments will be continued to the next line.

Continuation of quoted character lines

If a value of an operand begins with a single quotation mark (') and there is no close single quotation mark in the same line, it is determined that the next line contains a part of the same input. The continued line must begin with "//" in columns 1 and 2, and the contents must begin in column 4 until column 16.

Example 1

In the following example, it is determined that continuation is used according to the "continuation of operand 1" rule.

123-------------------------------------------------------------------72
//JOB1 JOB CLASS=A,MSGCLASS=A,COND=(0,EQ),
//         MSGLEVEL=(1,1)

Example 2

In the following example, the "continuation of operand 1" rule is applied even if comments are described after a comma (,).

123-------------------------------------------------------------------72
//JOB1 JOB CLASS=A,MSGCLASS=A,COND=(0,EQ), this is comment
//         MSGLEVEL=(1,1)

Example 3

In the following example, the "continuation of operand 1" and "continuation of comments" rules are applied because the last operand ends with a comma (,), and comments exist and column 72 is marked. If the two rules are met, the "continuation of operand 1" takes priority over the "continuation of comments" rule. Therefore, the contents in the next line are recognized as operands, not comments.

123-------------------------------------------------------------------72
//JOB1 JOB CLASS=A,MSGCLASS=A,COND=(0,EQ), this is comment             A
//         MSGLEVEL=(1,1)

Example 4

In the following example, the "continuation of operand 2" rule is applied because column 72 is marked although the last operand does not end with a comma (,) and it is without comments.

123-------------------------------------------------------------------72
//JOB1 JOB CLASS=A,MSGCLASS=A,COND=(0,EQ)                              B
//         ,MSGLEVEL=(1,1)

Example 5

In the following example, the "continuation of comments" rule is applied because the last operand does not end with a comma (,), comments exist and column 72 is marked. Therefore, the contents (MSGLEVEL=(1,1)) in the next line are recognized as comments.

123-------------------------------------------------------------------72
//JOB1 JOB CLASS=A,MSGCLASS=A,COND=(0,EQ) this is comment              C
//         ,MSGLEVEL=(1,1)

Example 6

In the following example, the "continuation of quoted character lines" rule is applied. The value of the PARM is "this is tmaxsoft program argument."

123-------------------------------------------------------------------72
//JOB1  JOB CLASS=A,MSGCLASS=A,COND=(0,EQ),MSGLEVEL=(1,1)
//STEP1 EXEC PGM=TMAXSOFT,COND=(0,NE),PARM='this is tmaxsoft program a
//      rgument'

Example 7

In the following example, "tmaxsoft_" means that an empty space is preceded by "tmaxsoft." The empty space is considered as a part of the value. Therefore, the value of the PARM is "this is tmaxsoft program argument."

123-------------------------------------------------------------------72
//JOB1  JOB CLASS=A,MSGCLASS=A,COND=(0,EQ),MSGLEVEL=(1,1)
//STEP1 EXEC PGM=TMAXSOFT,COND=(0,NE),PARM='this is tmaxsoft_
//      program argument'

Each operand is separated by a comma (,).

value1,value2,value3

Even if positional operands are omitted, commas (,) must remain to indicate the positions.

value1,,value3

If there is no other positional operands following the positional operand to omit, commas (,) can also be omitted since there are no further operands to separate.

value1,value2,,keyword = value4

value1,value2,keyword = value4

If there is no keyword operand following a positional operand, the last comma (,) must be omitted.

value1,value2

Each keyword operand is separated by a comma (,). Since keyword operands can be used regardless of positions, when they are omitted, commas (,) can be also omitted.

The order of keyword operands has no meaning except for the PROC and PGM operands in an EXEC statement.

When both positional and keyword operands are used, all positional operands are written before keyword operands.

If all positional operands are omitted, no comma (,) is needed to be specified before a keyword operand.

[] (brackets)

Operands enclosed in these symbols can be omitted.

{} (braces)

Operands enclosed in these symbols are longitudinally aligned one by one, and one of them is selected.

| (vertical bar)

When multiple operands are delimited by this symbol, one of them is selected.

Bold

If no value is specified in braces ({, }), the bold word is used by default.

…​ (ellipsis)

The item that is immediately followed by this symbol can be repeatedly specified.

Specified Type

Descriptions of each type are as follows:

Start of JOB

A JOB statement indicates the start of JOB.

End of JOB

A null statement or a JOB statement that represents the start of the next JOB indicates the end of JOB. In the case of an input stream, the last JOB in the stream indicates the end of JOB.

Start of JOB STEP

The start of an EXEC statement indicates the start of JOB STEP.

End of JOB STEP

An EXEC statement that represents the start of the next JOB STEP indicates the end of JOB STEP. In the case of JOB's last STEP, the end of JOB means the end of JOB step.