Date:         Wed, 18 Feb 2004 20:56:28 -0500
Reply-To:     Lou <lpogodajr292185@COMCAST.NET>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Lou <lpogodajr292185@COMCAST.NET>
Subject:      Re: sorting data on mainframe

"Choate, Paul@DDS" <pchoate@DDS.CA.GOV> wrote in message
news:83F5497995A8D511965F00508BB929700271F3EA@ddsexmb01.cahwnet.gov...
PD -

>SAS is 99% environment independent, INFORMAT $char20. and proc sort
>nodupkeys should do the trick on MVS just like on a PC.  $Char20. will read
>anything except perhaps special end-of-file markers and cr/lf's. Even that
>can be circumvented by reading the data as a stream.

It's not clear from the above, so just for the record, a FB mainframe file
doesn't have that stuff - the system maintains a catalog of files and their
characteristics.  When the file is read, the stream of bytes gets chopped
into records of however many bytes the catalog says the lrecl is.  If there
happens to be what, on a PC, would be a CR/LF sequence, it has no
signifiganse in determining where one record stops and the next begins.