Interview question on SYSIN, CICS and VSAM.

[RahmatKhan]

Hi,

I was asked the following questions:

1. How to pass more than one record in SYSIN DD *? If you pass more than one, how can we get the data in program?

My answer was every "new line" will be a new record. But I think it was not correct, can you please help me in knowing the correct answer.

2. How to know if somebody log in CICS Region or not, is there a way out? Any command?

I did not know the answer.

3. How to concatinate two different VB VSAM files?

I did not know the answer.

Can someone please help me with answers.

[Anuj Dhawan]

1. If you mean what you write, you sound correct. Below peace of codes shows how can you pass multiple parameters using SYSIN DD:

Example 1:

Code: Select all

//SOMEPGM EXEC PGM=SOMEPGM
//SYSIN    DD *
This is Parameter 01 from SYSIN-DD-*.
This is Parameter 02 from SYSIN-DD-*..
This is Parameter 03 from SYSIN-DD-*...
/*
//*

Example 2:

Code: Select all

//SOMEPGM1 EXEC PGM=SOMEPGM1
//SYSIN    DD  DISP=SHR,DSN=USER.PDS.WITH.PARMS(MOREPARM)
//*

3. If you see this link, http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/ ... 0624112123, per section "3.6.3 Concatenating Data Sets Sequentially": (bold emphasis is added by me)

A sequential concatenation can include sequential data sets, PDS members, PDSE members, and UNIX files. With sequential concatenation, the system treats a PDS, PDSE, or UNIX member as if it were a sequential data set. The system treats a striped extended-format data set as if it were a single-volume data set.

[/b]Rule: You cannot concatenate VSAM data sets[/b].

,

But if you are talking about MERGE in SORT, you can have multiple VSAMs like this:

Code: Select all

//SORTIN01 DD DISP=SHR,vsam.file1 
//SORTIN02 DD DISP=SHR,vsam.file2 
 MERGE FIELDS=(....)

But this presumes they are already in the sort-order that you desire.

[RahmatKhan]

Thanks a lot Anuj for the detailed explanation.

Can you please also help me with the question: 2. How to know if somebody log in CICS Region or not, is there a way out? Any command?

[Robert Sample]

It can be done, but not by a command. My old company had an OPER transaction that would display a list of the terminals and the user id signed on to that terminal. I suspect it was done with the system programming (SP) command EXEC CICS INQUIRE TERMINAL but never had a chance to investigate it closer. Many sites have such a program because it is so useful. The specific transaction will vary by site, of course.