Date System Variables

In the preceding steps, you specified a number of variables in the JCL, including, %%ODATE, %%DATE, and %%ODAY. These variables are predefined system date variables, with the following characteristics:

• Predefined system date variables defined to Control-M with recognized meanings.
• Predefined system date variables have values that are not user-supplied, but are resolved from values that are system-supplied.
• Predefined system date variables resolve according to date information.

The AutoEdit facility recognizes many system date variables. These are listed and defined in the JCL and AutoEdit facility chapter of the Control-M for z/OS User Guide. However, rather than considering them individually, it is easier to think of system date variables in terms of groupings. Once you have considered the groupings, you can probably anticipate the correct variable name, as illustrated below:

• Date variables can be used for system date, original scheduling date, and current working date.

  For example, you saw %%DATE resolve to the system date and %%ODATE resolve to the original scheduling date. You also could have specified %%RDATE, which resolves to the current working date.

  While there is no special prefix to indicate system dates, original scheduling date variables have a prefix of %%O, and current working date variables have a prefix of %%R.

• Different date units can be requested.

  For example, you saw %%ODAY provide the day unit (1 - 13) of the original scheduling date.

  • Some of the more common system date units are %%DAY, %%MONTH, %%YEAR, %%WDAY, which indicates weekday, and %%WEEK, which indicates the week number in the year, 1 through 53.
  • The corresponding variables, such as %%OWDAY or %%RWDAY, are available for original scheduling dates and current working dates.
  • Other date units of the original scheduling date include %%OMONTH, %%OYEAR, %%OWDAY, for weekday, and %%OWEEK, for week of the year, 1 through 53.
• Julian day variables can also be requested. These are all suffixed JULDAY.

  %%JULDAY, %%OJULDAY, and %%RJULDAY are examples of valid Julian date variables.

• Years in the variables described above are 2-character years. If a 4-character year is desired, a $ should follow the %%.

  For example, %%$DATE, %%$ODATE, and %%$RDATE each return the appropriated date in yyyymmdd format, or a different 4-character year format, depending upon the standards in place at your site.