JCL continuation
The rules for splitting one JCL statement over several lines, which depend on commas and column positions.
Also written continue a JCL line, column 71, column 72, column 16, JCL columns
A JCL statement often has too many parameters for one line. You continue it by ending the line after a comma, and starting the next line with // followed by blanks, with the next parameter starting anywhere from column 4 to column 16.
Only columns 1 to 71 hold JCL. Columns 73 to 80 are ignored, and are often used for sequence numbers. Anything past column 71 is lost, which is a common reason for a strange JCL error: the end of a dataset name has been cut off.
Two mistakes cause most continuation errors. The first is a missing comma at the end of the line, so JCL thinks the statement has ended and treats the next line as a new statement. The second is starting the continued text too far to the right, after column 16.
Long values, such as a PARM in quotes, have their own rule: code the value up to column 71, and continue it in column 16 of the next line. The ISPF editor shows column positions with the COLS line command, which helps when checking.
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- JCLJob Control Language: the language used to tell the mainframe what programs to run, in what order, and with what files.
- DD statementThe JCL statement that connects a name inside a program to a real dataset outside it.
- EXEC statementThe JCL statement that starts a step by naming the program or procedure to run.
- JCL errorA job that fails before running any program, because the JCL itself is wrong or something it names cannot be found.