Is there any difference between the plus sign (+) and the dash (-) that are used on header transaction cards in Datadictionary utilities?

Products

• Datacom
• DATACOM - AD

Issue/Introduction

Datadictionary utilities seem to work fine when a card for an header transaction starts with either a dash (-) or a plus sign(+).

Is there any difference between the plus sign (+) and the dash (-) that are used on header transaction cards in Datadictionary utilities? Do they have the same meaning?

Environment

Release: DATABB00200-14-Datacom/AD
Component:

Resolution

The standard header transaction indicator for the Datadictionary utilities is the dash (-) character.

However, as there could be a problem for some reason in a customer's environment, there is an alternate character defined.

This alternate character can be defined using the SUBCHAR parameter of DDSYSTBL macro, which is assembled and linked to create load module DDSRTLM.

 

Here is the definition of SUBCHAR parameter:

SUBCHAR=

Specify a substitute header transaction indicator that can be used in place of the - (dash) on batch header transactions. The character defined by this parameter can be used in column 1 of CPY, ADD, DEL, RPT, or UTL transactions in place of the hyphen (-).

 

·         Valid Entries: Any non-blank character

 

·         Default Value: +

 

The default value is the plus sign (+) as the DDSYSTBL source is shipped.

 

So using the primary character (-) or the alternate one (+) makes no difference.