Mainframe, MVS and zOS Discussion

Please read William's post carefully - word by word. Especiall the sentence that starts "For SORT it is mostly best..." and the paragraph starting "Your SORT documentation...". In the latter case you were meant to actually go and read it.
Yes I read that:

For SORT it is mostly best to use ...

enrico-sorichetti wrote:

But for the work dataset,

the system does not care / does not know about the use of a ddname/dataset

for the system all the ddnames/datasets are handled the same way, according to the jcl keywords

Thanks. This is a new way of thinking for me. Thanks!

I read the below examples on SET and symblics in JCL

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Examples of the SET statement

z/OS MVS JCL Reference
SA23 ...

That was all about it. I read about parameterization but for this scenario I don't understand if a SET command can work. As the NOV15 is in between of the dataset name.

Generally, work datasets aren't used outside utilities and products. Where they are used, they are used for specific purposes, and the technical staff responsible for those utilities and products will know how to define/optimise their use.

For SORT it is mostly best to use dynamic allocation ...

there is a global limit on the number of DDNAMES that can be used

ant that number depends also on two more variables,
the number of extents and the number of volumes allocated

the SYSTEM INITIALIZATION AND TUNING manual has the following details

But for the work dataset, will be concerned ...

William Collins wrote:Are you asking about a SORT, or some other specific utility, or generally?

I'm asking generally. But if I could site a specific example like SORT too, it could have helped. So if you help with similar answer, it will be a great help.

Thanks for the answers. Interviewwer talked about some parameterization but I did not understand what he meant!

Hi,

Assume we have a JCL like this:

//STEPMNTH EXEC PGM=SORT/PGM
//INDATA DD DSN=some.data.NOV15,DISP=SHR
//OUTDATA DD DSN=out.put,DISP=SHR
//*

Now every month, every month Iwant to change the NOV15 according to the current month, how can I do this? I do not want to do it manually. :twisted ...

I searched for the answer of this question but I could not locate a good naswer -

How many work data sets can we specify at most in a step?

I don't if there is a limit of this sort? If it is there are we supposed to really remember it? Is there a thoumb rule for this which can help to answer ...