What is the difference between a symbolic and an override in executing a PROC?

A symbolic is a PROC placeholder; the value for the symbolic is supplied when the PROC is invoked, eg. &symbol=value. An override replaces the PROC's statement with another one; it substitutes for the entire statement.

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Oct 13th, 2004
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Soumik Das

Feb 20th, 2007

The symbolics of the PROC are the parameters specified in the PROC
the overirde whereas are the arguements which change the parameters...like in a PROC say TREE you can specify ...

// DSN = &TEST,

whereas when you call the proc....u code.

//st01 exec proc=tree,dsn=test.proj.file

so here the dsn is overriden by the specified value.

Gomathy

Apr 8th, 2007

Symbolic parameters are placed in the EXEC statements , and during compilation of the JCL, will replace the value. A typical use of Symbolic variables is, we can write generic PROC to be executed in various test and production regions by using Symbolic variables.

(In the DEV1 JCL)
//Stepname EXEC PROC=PROC1, &REGION=DEV1

(In the PROD JCL)
//Stepname EXEC PROC=PROC1, &REGION=PROD

(In the PROC)
//DD1 DSN=XXXX..&REGION.YYYY

Whereas Overrides are mainly used to create a new dataset, with the same characteristics as that of another dataset thats already defined in the same JCL.