RE: AS/400 equivalent of Mainframes SORT utility

["Mark Villa" <markvilla@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

~~~     I'm working on a mainframe to AS/400 conversion
~~~project. My problem
~~~is related to finding an equivalent of SORT utility of
~~~mainframes on AS/400.
~~~Has anybody worked on this earlier, please let me know. I'm
~~~looking for
~~~solutions for some specific features that the SORT utility has on
~~~mainframes. Just to let everybody know about it, you can
~~~define summation
~~~fields to SORT and it prevents overflow of such fields. To
~~~give an example:

I don't recall the native mainframe sort doing the accumulation the way you
described. Interesting.
One of the selling points of the 3rd party sort (I thought).

However, on the AS/400 I found the same true blue flavor as on the
mainframe. Overflow being recognized and flagged, but not really "handled".

I used the S/36 version of the sort, it was easier to blend in with things
for our purposes.

Here are some references, the IBM text reads as if FMTDTA and #GSORT are
equivalent, but I would not count on it.

---the GSORT version---
Ref #1: GSORT, only valid in the System/36 Environment , if you have not
used it, it is like entering a shell to execute older non native code. If
STRS36 is a valid command for you, the environment is loaded, and this sort
is valid.
     // LOAD #GSORT
     // FILE NAME-INPUT,LABEL-ITEMBALN
     // FILE NAME-WORK,LABEL-BALANCE,BLOCKS-50,RETAIN-S
     // FILE NAME-OUTPUT,LABEL-BALOUT,RETAIN-T,DISP-NEW,RECORDS-300
     // RUN
          HSORTR     8A        0   24   N
          I P  19  22LEF  23  26            AVAIL FLD LESS OR EQUAL TO REORD
          FNP  19  22                       AVAIL NUMBER OF UNITS AVAILABLE
          FNP  23  26                       REORD REORDER POINT
          FDC   2   9                       ITNBR ITEM NUMBER
     // END
Above came from here, just to indicate similarity in OCL to JCL:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr/BOOKS/qbjaur00/A.64.2?ACTION=M
ATCHES&REQUEST=gsort&TYPE=FUZZY&SHELF=QB3AYC05&DT=19950517141847&searchTopic
=&searchText=TEXT&searchIndex=INDEX&rank=RANK&ScrollTOP=FIRSTHIT#FIRSTHIT

---the REFORMAT DATA version---
Ref #2:
IBM Application System/400
Utilities: Sort User's Guide and Reference
Document Number SC09-1826-00
Program Number 5763-SS1

FMTDTA summary example
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr/BOOKS/qbkaq100/5.3.2?ACTION=MA
TCHES&REQUEST=summary&TYPE=FUZZY&SHELF=QB3AYC05&DT=19940606151250&searchTopi
c=TOPIC&searchText=TEXT&searchIndex=INDEX&rank=RANK&ScrollTOP=FIRSTHIT#FIRST
HIT


http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr/BOOKS/qbkaq100/10.4?SHELF=QB3A
YC05&DT=19940606151250

Please note that I intended to be helpful and content may not be without
error and omissions.
Mark Villa in Charleston SC