SORT-MESSAGE

The SORT-MESSAGE special register is the name of an alphanumeric data item that is available to both sort and merge programs.

Restriction: The SORT-MESSAGE special register is not applicable to sorting a table with the format 2 SORT statement.

The SORT-MESSAGE special register has the implicit definition:


01  SORT-MESSAGE GLOBAL PICTURE X(8) USAGE DISPLAY VALUE "SYSOUT".

When used in nested programs, this special register is implicitly defined with the global attribute in the outermost program.

You can use the SORT-MESSAGE special register to specify the ddname of a data set that the sort utility should use in place of the SYSOUT data set.

The ddname specified in SORT-MESSAGE is equivalent to the name specified on the 'MSGDDN=' control statement in the sort control file.

You can specify the SORT-MESSAGE special register in a function wherever an alphanumeric argument is allowed.