The Complete Job Control Language (JCL) Course.

A Batch process is an execution of a series of jobs without user interaction. Batch process is executed using Job Control Language. In this lecture i have explained Batch processing with an example using white-board animation video format.

JOB CONTROL LANGUAGE is used to submit jobs to the Mainframe systems. A JOB is one unit of work. Overview of the JCL is explained in this video. I have created a whiteboard animation for this lecture.

JCL has to be written inside a dataset having record length of 80. The syntax of the JCL is explained. The requirements to write a JCL program is also explained.

JOB statement is the first statement in any JCL program. JOB statement tells the name of the JOB, the location of the output, priority and other such information. The parameters given in JOB statement are applicable to all the steps in the JCL. The Job statement is explained in detail including all the parameters of the JOB statement.

This lecture explains all the parameters required in the JOB statement such as CLASS, MSGCLASS, MSGLEVEL, PRTY, NOTIFY and many more.

EXEC statement tells the system what programs/procedures to execute in the JCL. There can be multiple EXEC statements in one JCL. The EXEC statement and its parameters are explained in details.

This lecture also explains all the parameters required for the EXEC statement such as PGM, TIME, REGION, ACCT, PARM, PROC.

Dataset Definition statement specifies all the files that are to be used in the JCL. DD statements are given after the EXEC statement. There have to be an EXEC statement related to every DD statement. DD statement is explained in detail in this lecture.

This lecture also explains all the parameters required for the DD statement such as DISP, DSN, DCB, SPACE, UNIT and many more.

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JCL is coded from scratch. JOB, EXEC and DD statements are coded to sort a file. The job is then submitted to the system and the output file is analyzed to check whether the job ran fine or not.

Every JOB once submitted to the system goes through certain steps to get completed. The whole process of submitting the JOB to the ending of the JOB is explained in this lecture. It also shows the subsystems related to the JOB processing.

Every job step sets a return code based on the status of the execution. Return codes are explained in this video. Difference between return code and MAXCC is also explained.

System Display and Search Facility (SDSF) is a subsystem in z/OS. This subsystem is used to see the details related to any JOB that is running or has completed on the system. This lecture covers all the details such as the messages generated during the job execution, the output generated from the JOB and other such information during a job execution. It also covers some of the commands that can be executed in the SDSF subsystem.

In z/OS we have the SDSF option using which we can see the output of our job execution.

In MVS we have a similar option called OUTLIST. The option is available at 3.8. You can use this option to see the output of your JOB execution. The only major difference between z/OS and MVS is that the output in the OUTLIST is clubbed together in only one dataset. However in z/OS the output is separated in different datasets like JESMSG, JESJCL and SYSOUT.

All these details of OUTLIST are explained with a live example in this lecture.

A PS dataset is a sequential dataset. PS datasets can be created using option 3.2 in ISPF. It can also be created using a JCL. The whole process of creating a PS dataset using JCL is explained in this lecture, along with the code.

PDS dataset is also a sequential dataset but it is partitioned. A partitioned dataset means that it can contain many datasets inside it, just like a folder. PDS can be created using option 3.2 in ISPF. Members inside a PDS can also be created using the same way. We can also create a PDS dataset and its members using JCL. This lecture explains the whole process of creating a PDS using JCL along with the code.

PS and PDS can be easily deleted using ISPF. We can do the same using JCL as well. The whole process is explained in detail in this lecture where we first delete a PS using JCL, then a PDS and in the last the members of the PDS. The code for deletion is attached in the resources tab.

Generation Data Groups are group of related datasets. They make the creation of datasets which require similar dataset names easy. An Overview of GDG and its properties are explained in this lecture.

GDG can be created through JCL. The process of GDG creation is explained in this lecture.It explains both the GDG base creation and the creation of a generation for the same GDG. It also explains all the parameters that are required to create a JCL. The code is also provided in the resources tab.

The properties of a GDG can be changed using IDCAMS utility. This is useful when either we have made a mistake while creating a GDG or when we want to change the properties of a GDG.This is called altering a GDG. Altering a GDG is explained in detail in this lecture.

GDG has a base and many generation. How can we use one particular generation only? This problem is solved using referencing a GDG. We can use 0 for the latest generation of GDG, -1 for the second latest, -2 for the third latest and so on. Referencing a GDG in other ways is also explained in this lecture.

One particular generation of a GDG can be deleted without effecting any other generation. This is done by giving the full name of a gdg or by referencing it with a gdg number. More details are given about deleting a GDG generation in this lecture.

GDG has a base and many generations. To delete a GDG along with its base we have to use IDCAMS. We can give two options along with the DELETE command. These two options along with full code to delete GDG and all its generations is explained in this lecture.

JOBLIB is used to set the default location of all the load modules used in a JCL. It makes the searching of the load modules faster. More details about JOBLIB is explained in the lecture.

STEPLIB makes the searching of the load module faster. Load modules are first searched in the default system library, if not found then they are searched inside the STEPLIB. This lecture explains STEPLIB in detail.

JCLLIB is explained in detail in this lecture. JCLLIB is used to tell the location of the JCL code which has to be included in a JCL.

Procedures which are coded within a JCL and used within the same JCL is called an Instream procedure. Instream procedure has been explained in detail in this lecture.

Some parameters in a procedure need to be changed again and again. Such type of parameters are replaced with a symbolic parameter. We can then change the values of these parameters dynamically. Symbolic parameters are explained in detail in this lecture.

An instream procedure can't be used outside of the JCL. If we want to use a procedure outside of a JCL then we have to put it into a seperate library. This type of procedure is called a Cataloged procedure. Cataloged procedure is explained in detail in this lecture.

SET statement is used to set a permanent value for a symbolic parameter. More details are also explained along with the code in this lecture.

We sometime need to change the name of the datasets in a Procedure. To do this we can easily use a method called Overriding datasets. Overriding datasets is explained in this lecture in detail.

COND parameter can be used to decide whether to execute a step or not. COND parameter can be given in a JOB statement or an EXEC statement. The conditions given in a COND parameter are checked and based on the condition the step is executed. This lecture explains the COND parameter in detail.

If we do not give a step name in COND parameter then it will check the condition code of all the previous steps. If there is a step name then it will only check the condition code on that particular step. This lecture explains this concept in detail.

COND parameter can be given in two places. Either in the JOB statement or in an EXEC statement. When the COND parameter is given in JOB then it applies to every step in the JCL. The processing stops at the first STEP that satisfies the condition. This lecture explains in detail, how we can use COND parameter in the JOB statement.

COND can be used to never execute a step. In this lecture, I explain in detail the COND parameter that you can use to never execute a step. You can use COND=(0,LE) to always skip a step.

There are some situations in which we always want to execute a step. In such cases, we can use COND=(4095,LT). This condition is always false. Hence this step will execute always no matter what is the condition code of the previous step. This lecture explains this COND in detail.

We can use COND to execute a step in case the previous step has abended. This condition is COND=ONLY. In this case, the step is only executed if the previous step has abended. If the step has executed normally then the step will be ignored. The COND=EVEN will execute the step even if the previous steps have abended or not. So if a previous step has abended it will still execute the step. If the previous step has not abended, then still it will execute. So a step with COND=EVEN will always execute, no matter what. This lecture explains these parameters in detail.

We can use IF statement to decide whether to execute a step or not. IF statement is followed by a condition. If that condition is satisfied then the next step is executed. If the statement is not satisfied then the step is ignored. This lecture explains IF ENDIF statement in detail.

We can use IF with ELSE to execute a step based on a condition. The condition in an IF statement is checked. If the condition is satisfied then the step next to it is executed. In case the condition is not satisfied then we can use ELSE statement. The step that is coded in the ELSE statement is executed in case the condition in IF statement is not satisfied. The IF ELSE statement in JCL is explained in detail in this lecture.

Two text files are attached in the resources.

IMDB list: It is a list of over 5000 movies, documentaries, tv series etc.

Column details: It contains the column details of the IMDB list file.

Download both of them. Upload IMDB list to your Mainframe. We will use this dataset on all our SORT programs. The second dataset will be used to know the column number of the data.

In this lecture the syntax of a SORT JCL is explained in detail along with examples.

We can sort a dataset on multiple columns. In this lecture the sort of a dataset based on multiple fields is explained in detail along with examples.

SORT can be used to do a simple copy operation. The Copy of a dataset is explained in detail along with example in this lecture.