Local Variables

Local variables are user-defined variables that are only within the job stream. The value of a local variable can be changed within the job stream, but the changed value is kept only in memory for use during submission of that job stream. The value is not passed to another job stream.

Local variables can be defined in either of two ways:

• by means of %%SET statements in the JCL and/or SET VAR and DO SET statements in the job scheduling definition

  %%SET statements are described under Control Statements. SET VAR statements are described in SET VAR: General Job Parameter, and DO SET statements are described in DO SET: Post–Processing Parameter.

• by placing the variables and their values in special variable members

  Variable members are members dedicated to holding user-defined AutoEdit variables and their values. These variables and values in these members can be used by any number of Control-M jobs or Control-O rules that are given access. However, these jobs and rules cannot update these members.

  Members containing user-defined variables can be identified in either of two ways:

  • by a %%MEMSYM control statement

    This member must reside in the library specified in the %%LIBSYM statement that must accompany the %%MEMSYM statement. (The control statements %%LIBSYM and %%MEMSYM are described in Control Statements.) Any number of such variable members can be defined.

  • by a %%GLOBAL control statement

    This statement differs from the %%MEMSYM statement in that it does not have an accompanying %%LIBSYM statement. Instead, the library in which the %%GLOBAL member resides is pointed to by a DAGLOBAL DD statement.

  For example, the user may specify variable %%BRANCH_TAPE in a JCL statement:

  //S001.INPUT DD VOL=SER=%%BRANCH_TAPE

  and the %%MEMSYM member (or %%GLOBAL member) that assigns values might contain the following variable definition:

  %%BRANCH_TAPE=045673

  %%MEMSYM, %%LIBSYM and %%GLOBAL control statements are described in in Control Statements.