Specifying the sorting field

The SORT statement is the first argument to PLISRTx. The syntax of the SORT statement must be a character string expression that takes the form:

b

One or more blanks. Blanks shown are mandatory. No other blanks are allowed.

start,length,form,seq

Sorting fields. You can specify any number of such fields, but there is a limit on the total length of the fields. If more than one field is to be sorted on, the records are sorted first according to the first field, and then those that are of equal value are sorted according to the second field, and so on. If all the sorting values are equal, the order of equal records is preserved. The overlaying of sort fields is not supported.

start

The starting position within the record. Give the value in bytes. The first byte in a string is considered to be byte 1.

length

The length of the sorting field. Give the value in bytes. The length of sorting fields is restricted according to their data type.

form

The format of the data. This is the format assumed for the purpose of sorting. All data passed between PL/I routines and sort must be in the form of character strings. The main data types and the restrictions on their length are shown below.

Code

Data Type and Length

CH

character 1-65535

ZD

zoned decimal signed 1-255

PD

packed decimal signed 1-255

BI

binary, unsigned 1 bit to 4095 bytes

Note: If the file is EBCDIC, the PL/I library changes the sort argument from CH to BI to use the binary collating sequence for the field specified. The binary field limit is 4095.

seq

The sequence in which the data is sorted:

• A - ascending (that is, 1,2,3,...)
• D - descending (that is, ...,3,2,1).

Note: You cannot specify E, because PL/I does not provide a method of passing a user-supplied sequence.

other options

The only option supported under workstation PL/I is the default, EQUALS. Source code downloaded from the mainframe, however, does not need to be altered.