IDIDSECT concatenation

The IDIDSECT concatenation can optionally be specified in the DATASETS sections of your options data set. If specified, then it should specify the name of one or more PDS or PDSE data sets, which contain DSECT files to be used when processing the DSECT command.

The IDIDSECT data set attributes must be one of the following:
  • RECFM=FB and LRECL≥80
  • RECFM=VB and LRECL≥84
Regardless of LRECL, only the first 80 bytes of each record are read. The recommended IDIDSECT data set attributes are RECFM=FB and LRECL=80.

When in an interactive report, the first time the DSECT command is issued, it processes each data set in the IDIDSECT concatenation. If the data set contains a $DINDEX member (see Indexing your DSECT data sets ($DINDEX member)), then the DSECT details in this member are used. Otherwise, each member in the data set is assumed to contain a DSECT of the same name. When all the DSECT details have been determined for a data set, the process is repeated for the next data set, until all the data sets in the IDIDSECT concatenation have been processed.

Note that this process only happens once per interactive report session. If new DSECTs are added to a data set in the IDIDSECT concatenation, or if the $DINDEX member is updated, then you must do one of these actions:
  • Restart the interactive report.
  • Explicitly identify the new DSECT by specifying the data set and member name it is contained in.