DD Statements and Parameters

DFSORT or SORT utility uses some decicated DD statements apart from general DD statements. The DD statements and their functions are explained below -

DDname	Description
//SYSOUT DD	Specifies where to route the output messages generated by DFSORT.
//SORTIN DD	Specifies the input DD statement for a Sort or Copy.
//SORTINnn DD	Specifies the input DD statements for a Merge.
//SORTOUT DD	Specifies where to route the output generated by a Sort, Merge, or Copy opertions.
//OUTFIL DD	Specifies a output DD statement for a Sort, Merge, or Copy operations when OUTFIL is used.
//SORTWKdd DD	Specifies temporary storage files for Sort processing.
//SYSIN DD	Used to provide DFSORT control statements which are required for processing. Refer JCL SYSIN
//SYSUDUMP DD	Used to specify the dataset to dump for user areas. Refer JCL SYSUDUMP
//SYSMDUMP DD	Used to specify the dataset to store a dump of the system areas and the program's address space. Refer JCL SYSMDUMP
//SYSABEND DD	Used to specify the system dump dataset. ReferJCL SYSABEND
//ddname	Specifies the data set contains exit routines.

DD statement parameters -

The DD statement parameters used by DFSORT are -

{AMP | BUFSP} - Used when password-protected VSAM files are used in sorting. BUFSP is used when minimum buffer pool value required while creating the data set. No default values for these parameters.
DCB - Provides the information about the organization, record format, record length, block size and other dataset attributes. Refer JCL DCB Parameter
DISP - Specifies how a dataset is handled in a job or job step. Refer JCL DISP Parameter
DSNAME or DSN - Specifies the file names.
SPACE - Specifies the amount of memory needed.
UNIT - Specifies the number of I/O units required for processing file.
VOLUME/VOL - Specifies the information used to identify the volume.

Note! If duplicate DDnames are provided in the DFSORT JCL, it ignores the second and performs the operation using the first one alone.