Can't we open a dummy file in COBOL, getting File staus 35.

[Abhishek Gupta]

Hi,

I've a program used in two jobs. There are 6 VSAM Files in use in this program. In first job, it uses all 6 VSAM files. In second job it uses only 3 VSAM files and other 3 files are marked as dummy, for the second job.

In second job, when the program try to open the dummy files it is giving the file status 35. I am not sure why it giving this status. Can't we use DD DUMMY for VSAM files which are not required.

Please guide me .

Thank you.

[William Collins]

Lots of things you can do. First read what it says in the manial about file status 35. Make sure you understand all of it.

[Robert Sample]

When you dummy out a DD statement pointing to a VSAM data set, you need to include an ACB on the DD DUMMY statement to prevent the default DCB (which is not valid for VSAM) from being used.

There are other possible reasons for your file status 35 (for example, you dummied out a VSAM DD statement base cluster but there is an alternate index defined on that VSAM file and you did not include the path reference for the alternate index) and you did not provide enough information to fully resolve the problem.

[Abhishek Gupta]

Thanks Robert defining ACB has helped.