COMPARE statement

The COMPARE statement compares the actual results of a call with the expected results. The three types of COMPARE statements are the COMPARE PCB, COMPARE DATA, and COMPARE AIB.

When you use the COMPARE PCB, COMPARE DATA, and COMPARE AIB statements you must:

  • Code COMPARE statements in the DFSDDLT0 stream immediately after either the last continuation, if any, of the CALL DATA statement or another COMPARE statement.
  • Specify the print option for the COMPARE statements in column 7 of the STATUS statement.

For all three COMPARE statements:

  • The condition code returned for a COMPARE gives the total number of unequal comparisons.
  • For single fixed-length segments, DFSDDLT0 uses the comparison length to perform comparisons if you provide a length. The length comparison option (column 3) is not applicable.

When you use the COMPARE PCB statement and you want a snap dump when there is an unequal comparison, request it on the COMPARE PCB statement. A snap dump to a log with SNAP ID COMPxxxx is issued along with the snap dump options specified in column 3 of the COMPARE PCB statement.

The numeric part of the SNAP ID is initially set to 0000 and is incremented by 1 for each SNAP resulting from an unequal comparison.