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[kingo]

Hi,

I am new to rexx can any one help me compare two files using REXX.

Regds,
Kingo
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IF YOU ARE NOT FOCUSSED ON GOAL ALL YOU SEE IS OBSTACLE.

[expat]

Why not use the IBM utility SUPER-C - usually option 3.12

It saves reinventing the wheel.
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If it's true that we are here to help others,
then what exactly are the others here for ?

[kingo]

I know that option.But want to know it in develop my skills in REXX thats why.

Regds,
Kingo
_________________
IF YOU ARE NOT FOCUSSED ON GOAL ALL YOU SEE IS OBSTACLE.

[Nic Clouston]

Depends how you want to compare...A simple way is

read a record from file a
read a record from file b
do while more records on file a and file b
if file a record = file b record
then say records match
else say records do not match
read record from file a
read record from file b
end

But if you want to learn Rexx then do it yourself - you will learn better. There is plenty of reasonable documentation around and some books and sample you can look at.
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Utility and Program control cards are NOT, repeat NOT, JCL.

[acevedo]

even though I'm agree with expat...don't reinvent the wheel, learn to use the proper language/utility for a given task.

Rexx is very easy to learn... search for examples here in this forum... there are lots of them (search for execio to read files, Do while to loop an so...).

[kingo]

I am facing one more problem.I wrote one REXX trying access one table.I am getting -805

Regds,
Kingo
_________________
IF YOU ARE NOT FOCUSSED ON GOAL ALL YOU SEE IS OBSTACLE.

[Nic Clouston]

what is -805? Have you read up on it? Have you checked your code with reference to what the message refers to?

And this is a different problem so should be a different thread.
_________________
Utility and Program control cards are NOT, repeat NOT, JCL.

[semigeezer]

I have to respectfully disagree with the other responders. I think writing a compare utility is an excellent way to learn Rexx. Who cares if you re-invent the wheel? Everyone who learns recursion, for example, reinvents the algorithm for Fibonacci numbers, and reinvents the Tower of Hanoi game. Everyone who learns a new programming language reinvents the "hello world" program. It'd be wrong to say that because there are already programs that say hello world or solve the Tower of Hanoi problem, that students should never do that again.

The reason a compare utility is such a good choice is that it takes you through most of the steps that Rexx programs use:

• Start with doing I/O to read the files.
  
• Learn to use stem variables for records and as associative arrays
  
• Learn the various operators for comparison.
  
• Learn the built in function for string handling to find and display differences.
  
• Create functions to do special manipulations like creating report sections.
  
• Once a basic Rexx implementation of compare is done, move on to invoking other utilities like SuperC, or Sort or others. That will teach you how to use DDNames, external programs and parameter passing in Rexx and eventually, hopefully, will teach you that all these people who keep asking how to do bizzare things using JCL should be using Rexx instead.

[acevedo]

yes, maybe (sure!) you're right, reinventing the wheel is good just for the experience/knowlege that you get in the process, BUT if you're not a beginner I still think that it's really important, as I said, to know what tool use for a given task.