OCCUR Operator (for Experienced)


  • Print each unique occurrence and how many times they occur for specified numeric/character fields in a separate list file.
  • Simple or well-structured reports are produced using OCCURS clause.
  • 1 to 10 ON fields can be coded if the resulting list data set line length does not exceed the limit specified by the WIDTH operand or 8192 bytes.
  • All ON fields are used to determine whether a record contains a unique value or not.

Syntax -

OCCUR Operator

Required Operands


FROM -

  • FROM parameter specifies ddname of the input file.
  • indd DD statement is mandatory if FROM operand specified.

LIST -

  • listdd specifies the list dataset ddname to be created by ICETOOL LIST operation.
  • A listdd DD statement should be provided.

ON -

  • ON operator specifies the field(s) used for DISPLAY operation.
  • 1 to 50 ON fields can be specified with the DISPLAY operation.
    • (p,m,f) gives the position, length, and format of a numeric or character field. The field should not be beyond position 32752 or the end of the record.
    • (p,m,f, formatting) gives a numeric or character field's position, length, and format. It also specifies how the data is to be formatted for printing for this field. The field should not be beyond position 32752 or the end of the record.
    • VLEN is equivalent to ON(1,2, BI) for variable-length records, representing each record's record length.

Optional Operands


TITLE, PAGE, DATE, DATENS, YDDD, YDDDNS, TIME and TIMENS -

  • Specify the elements in the title lines at the top of each page.
  • Only specified details appear in the order given.
  • Each title string can consist of up to three individual strings.
  • A string can be 1 to 50 characters.

TLEFT -

  • Specifies title strings are left-justified for each other.

TFIRST -

  • Specifies the title lines are only printed on the first page.

NOCC -

  • Suppresses carriage control characters.

HEADER -

  • Specifies one, two, or three lines heading to be printed for the corresponding ON the field.
  • A heading string can be 1 to 50 characters.
  • NONE can suppress the heading for the corresponding ON the field.

NOHEADER -

  • Suppresses the heading line.

LINES -

  • Specifies the number of lines per page.
  • n can be 10 to 999.

BLANK and PLUS -

  • It forces the column widths to be dynamically adjusted as needed.
  • It suppresses leading zeros for numeric fields.
  • BLANK causes a blank, rather than a +, for the positive sign.

ALLDUPS, NODUPS, HIGHER, LOWER, EQUAL –

  • Limits the count values to those occurrences that meet the given criteria.
  • 'x', 'y', and 'v' values are mandatory.
  • 'n' value should be positive, and 'n' can be 1 to 15 decimal digits.

VSAMTYPE -

  • VSAMTYPE operand specifies the record format for a VSAM input file (F or V).

WIDTH -

  • Specifies the line length and LRECL length for the list data set.
  • 'n' can be 121 to 8192.
  • If the WIDTH specified is less than the calculated line length, ICETOOL terminates the operation.
  • If WIDTH is not specified, the calculated line length is used as the line length and LRECL for the list data set.

LONGLINE -

  • Specifies the calculated line length to be a maximum of 8191 bytes.

INDENT -

  • Specifies the number of blanks used to indent the report.
  • Overrides the default value 0.
  • 'n' can range from 0 to 50.

BETWEEN -

  • Specifies the number of blanks used between the data columns.
  • Overrides the default value of 3.
  • 'n' can range from 0 to 50.

TBETWEEN -

  • Specifies the number of blanks used between title elements.
  • Overrides the default value of 8.
  • 'n' can be from 0 to 50.

UZERO -

  • Causes -0 to be treated as unsigned, that is, as 0.

LISTSDB -

  • LISTSDB specifies to ICETOOL that the BLKSIZE should select as the system-determined optimum block size for the LIST data set in the same way as for installation option SDBMSG=YES.

LISTNOSDB -

  • LISTSDB specifies to ICETOOL that the BLKSIZE should select as the system-determined optimum block size for the LIST data set in the same way as for installation option SDBMSG=NO.

Example -


Scenario - Display the number of employees based on the country code(two characters from the 60th column).

INPUT - MATEPK.INPUT.PSFILE

 BROWSE    MATEPK.INPUT.PSFILE                        Line 00000000 Col 001 080 
 Command ===>                                                  Scroll ===> CSR  
----+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4----+----5----+----6----+----7----+----8
********************************* Top of Data **********************************
001  PAWAN         MAINFRAME           JPM       AP        IN                   
002  SRINIVAS      TESTING             ORACLE    TG        IN                   
003  SRIDHAR       SAS                 CG        OR        US                   
004  VENKATESH     ABAP                CSC       CA        US                   
005  RAVI          HADOOP              CTS       FL        US                   
006  PRASAD        HR                  INFOSYS   MI        US                   
007  RAJA          TESTING             IBM       CA        US                   
******************************** Bottom of Data ********************************

JCL -

----+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4----+----5----+----6----+----7--
***************************** Top of Data ******************************
//MATEPKIT JOB (123),'MATEPK',CLASS=A,MSGCLASS=A,MSGLEVEL=(1,1),        
//             NOTIFY=&SYSUID                                           
//*                                                                     
//STEP01   EXEC PGM=ICETOOL                                             
//INDD     DD DSN=MATEPK.INPUT.PSFILE,DISP=SHR                          
//OUTDD    DD DSN=MATEPK.OUTPUT.PSFILEO,                                
//            DISP=(NEW,CATLG,DELETE),VOLUME=SER=DEVHD4,                
//            SPACE=(TRK,(1,1),RLSE),UNIT=SYSDA,                        
//            DCB=(DSORG=PS,RECFM=FB,LRECL=80,BLKSIZE=800)              
//TOOLIN   DD *                                                         
  OCCUR FROM(INDD) LIST(OUTDD)                  -                       
        TITLE('EMPLOYEES COUNT: COUNTRY LEVEL') -                       
        ON(60,2,CH) ON(VALCNT)                                          
/*                                                                      
//TOOLMSG  DD SYSOUT=*                                                  
//DFSMSG   DD SYSOUT=*                                                  
//                                                                      
**************************** Bottom of Data ****************************

OUTPUT - MATEPK.OUTPUT.PSFILEO

 BROWSE    MATEPK.OUTPUT.PSFILEO                      Line 00000000 Col 001 080 
 Command ===>                                                  Scroll ===> CSR  
----+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4----+----5----+----6----+----7----+----8
********************************* Top of Data **********************************
EMPLOYEES COUNT: COUNTRY LEVEL                                                  
                                                                                
(60,2,CH)              VALUE COUNT                                              
IN                     000000000000002                                          
US                     000000000000005                                          
******************************** Bottom of Data ********************************

TOOLMSG (SDSF SPOOL) - Verify TOOLMSG for the return code of the submitted job.

----+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4----+----5----+----6----+----7----+----8----+----9
********************************* TOP OF DATA ********************************************
1ICE600I 0 DFSORT ICETOOL UTILITY RUN STARTED                                   
                                                                                
 ICE650I 0 VISIT http://www.ibm.com/storage/dfsort FOR ICETOOL PAPERS, EXAMPLES AND MORE 
                                                                                
 ICE632I 0 SOURCE FOR ICETOOL STATEMENTS:  TOOLIN                               
                                                                                
                                                                                
 ICE630I 0 MODE IN EFFECT:  STOP                                                
                                                                                
             OCCUR FROM(INDD) LIST(OUTDD)                  -              
                   TITLE('EMPLOYEES COUNT: COUNTRY LEVEL') -              
                   ON(60,2,CH) ON(VALCNT)                                 
 ICE643I 0 WIDTH OF REPORT IS 0121 BYTES                                  
 ICE627I 0 DFSORT CALL 0001 FOR SORT FROM INDD     TO E35 EXIT COMPLETED  
 ICE603I 0 INFORMATION PRINTED IN OUTDD    DATA SET                       
 ICE628I 0 RECORD COUNT:  000000000000007                                 
 ICE638I 0 NUMBER OF RECORDS RESULTING FROM CRITERIA:  000000000000002    
 ICE602I 0 OPERATION RETURN CODE:  00                                     
                                                                                
                                                                                
 ICE601I 0 DFSORT ICETOOL UTILITY RUN ENDED - RETURN CODE:  00                  
******************************** BOTTOM OF DATA ******************************************

Explaining Solution -

  • INDD - Specifies the ddname for input file.
  • OUTDD - Specifies the ddname for output file.
  • TOOLIN DD * - Specifies the ICETOOL statements for DFSORT.
  • TOOLMSG - Specifies where to write the ICETOOL processing messages.
  • DFSMSG - Specifies where to write the DFSORT processing messages.
  • COPY FROM(INDD) TO(OUTDD) - Copies all the records from INDD file to OUTDD file.
  • OCCUR FROM(INDD) LIST(OUTDD1)
    TITLE('EMPLOYEES COUNT: COUNTRY LEVEL')
    ON(60,2,CH) ON(VALCNT)
    - Writes the employee record occurrences to the OUTDD based on the selection criteria.