A CPYF Idiosyncrasy

Hey, Ted:

I have a problem with the Copy File (CPYF) command. When I use a CPYF command in a CL program and put a variable in the value argument of the Include records by field test (INCREL) parameter, the system copies all the records that start with the non-blank contents of this variable.

This is the command:

CPYF  FROMFILE(DATALIB/USERPF) +
      TOFILE(BAHRLIB/USERPF) +
      MBROPT(*ADD) +
      INCREL((*IF PRFNAM *EQ &USERPRF)).

The value of variable &USERPRF is CEM. The copy command copies all the records where the first three characters of PRFNAM are CEM. This includes records with PRFNAM values of CEM, CEMA, CEMT, CEMIL, and so on. I only want it to copy records with CEM and nothing else.

How can I solve this problem?

Thanks and kind regards.

-- Cem

It's good to hear from you again, Cem. You have stumbled upon one of CPYF's weird features. The system examines the fourth argument in the INCREL parameter to see how many characters are left after stripping out trailing blanks. In your example, &USERPRF contains three non-blank characters followed by seven blanks, so CPYF looks at the first three characters of PRFNAM and nothing else.

I suggest you use the Open Query File (OPNQRYF) and Copy from Query File (CPYFRMQRYF) commands instead. Here's an example:

OPNQRYF    FILE((DATALIB/USERPF)) +
           QRYSLT('PRFNAM *EQ "' +
                   *CAT &USERPRF *CAT '"')
CPYFRMQRYF FROMOPNID(USERPF) +
           TOFILE(BAHRLIB/USERPF) +
           MBROPT(*ADD)
CLOF       OPNID(USERPF)

OPNQRYF selects records with an exact match and doesn't ignore trailing blanks.

-- Ted