Character sets

To code job control statements, use characters from the character sets in Table 1. Table 2 lists the special characters that have syntactical functions in job control statements.

Table 1. Character Sets
Character set	Contents	Details
Alphanumeric	Alphabetic Numeric	Capital A through Z 0 through 9
National (See note)	“At” sign Dollar sign Pound sign	@ (Characters that can be $ represented by hexadecimal # values X'7C', X'5B', and X'7B')
Special	Comma Period Slash Apostrophe Left parenthesis Right parenthesis Asterisk Ampersand Plus sign Hyphen Equal sign Blank	, . / ' ( ) * & + - =
EBCDIC text	EBCDIC printable character set	Characters that can be represented by hexadecimal X'40' through X'FE'
Note: The system recognizes the following hexadecimal representations of the U.S. National characters; @ as X'7C'; $ as X'5B'; and # as X'7B'. In countries other than the U.S., the U.S. National characters represented on terminal keyboards might generate a different hexadecimal representation and cause an error. For example, in some countries the $ character may generate a X'4A'.

Table 2. Special Characters Used in Syntax
Character	Syntactical function
,	To separate parameters and subparameters
=	To separate a keyword from its value, for example, BURST=YES
( ␢ )	To enclose subparameter list or the member name of a PDS or PDSE
&	To identify a symbolic parameter, for example, &LIB
&&	To identify a temporary data set name, for example, &&TEMPDS, and, to identify an in-stream or sysout data set name, for example, &&PAYOUT
.	To separate parts of a qualified data set name, for example, A.B.C., or parts of certain parameters or subparameters, for example, nodename.userid
*	To refer to an earlier statement, for example, OUTPUT=.name, or, in certain statements, to indicate special functions: //label CNTL //ddname DD * RESTART=* on the JOB statement
'	To enclose specified parameter values which contain special characters
(blank)	To delimit fields

Special characters in parameters: The syntax or parameter description indicates if the variable that you code can contain special characters or not. Parameters and subparameters that can contain special characters not used for syntactical functions usually must be enclosed in apostrophes, for example, ACCT='123+456'. Code each apostrophe that is part of the parameter or subparameter as two consecutive apostrophes, for example, code O'NEIL as 'O''NEIL'.

Table 3 lists the parameters that can contain certain special characters without requiring enclosing apostrophes.

Ampersands are used in JCL to indicate the beginning of a symbolic parameter (see Using system symbols and JCL symbols). If a parameter contains an ampersand and you do not want the system to interpret the ampersand as a symbolic parameter, code the ampersand as two consecutive ampersands. For example, code

//S1   EXEC  PGM=IEFBR14,ACCT='&&ABC'
//DD1  DD    DSN=&&TEST,UNIT=SYSDA,SPACE=(TRK,(1,1))

The system treats double ampersands as a single character. IBM recommends that you use apostrophes to enclose parameters that contain ampersands (other than a DSNAME parameter representing a temporary data set) to further reduce the possibility of error.

Table 3. Special Characters that Do Not Require Enclosing Apostrophes
Statement and parameter or subparameter	Special characters not needing enclosing apostrophes	Examples
JOB accounting information	Hyphens (-)	//JOBA JOB D58-D04
JOB programmer's-name	Hyphens (-), leading periods, or embedded periods. Note that a trailing period requires enclosing apostrophes.	//JOBB JOB ,S-M-TU //JOBC JOB ,.ABC //JOBD JOB ,P.F.M //JOBE JOB ,'A.B.C.'
EXEC ACCT	Hyphens (-) or plus zero (+0, an overpunch)	//S1 EXEC PGM=A,ACCT=D58-LOC //S2 EXEC PGM=B,ACCT=D04+0
DD DSNAME	Hyphens (-)	DSNAME=A-B-C
	Periods to indicate a qualified data set name	DSNAME=A.B.C
	Double ampersands to identify a temporary data set name, and to identify an in-stream or sysout data set name	DSNAME=&&TEMPDS DSNAME=&&PAYOUT
	Parentheses to enclose the member name of a partitioned data set (PDS) or partitioned data set extended (PDSE) or the generation number of a generation data set	DSNAME=PDS1(MEMA) DSNAME=ISDS(PRIME) DSNAME=GDS(+1)
	Plus (+) or minus (-) sign to identify a generation of a generation data group	DSNAME=GDS(-2)
DD VOLUME=SER	Hyphens (-)	VOLUME=SER=PUB-RD
DD UNIT device-type	Hyphens (-)	UNIT=SYSDA