Coding ACF2 rules for UID string character fields with blanks

Products

• ACF2 - z/OS

Issue/Introduction

The ACF2 UID string has fields division, dept and company as part of the UID string.  There are cases where the dept can be 1 or 2 or 3 char which would possibly leave 1 or 2 blanks in the middle of the UID string.  This does not sound like a good idea, unless for validation against a UID in a rule a blank is treated like any other char we might have in a UID string.  Not sure how ACF2 would treat a blank in the middle of the UID string.

And to confuse matters even more how about if the UID string in a rule which can be partial ended where blanks are in the dept?     

Environment

Release : 16.0

Component : ACF2 for z/OS

Resolution

Blanks are treated like any other characters and would need to be accounted for in the UID string in rule entries using an actual blank or '*'. Consider the following:

DIVISION is defined as character length 1
DEPT is defined as character length 3 
COMPANY is defined as character length 8

and UID string is DIVISION, DEPT, COMPANY, UID

$KEY(UIDBLANK)                                              
 TEST2 UID(*AC ********USRTEST) READ(A) WRITE(A) EXEC(A)   
 TEST3 UID(*AC*********USRTEST) READ(A) WRITE(A) EXEC(A)   
 TEST4 UID(*AC) READ(A) WRITE(A) EXEC(A)
 TEST5 UID(*AC*) READ(A) WRITE(A) EXEC(A)
 TEST6 UID(*AC ) READ(A) WRITE(A) EXEC(A)

If the USRTEST logonid has:

DIVISION(A)
DEPT(AC)       <===length is character 3 so internally ACb  where b is a blank
COMPANY(COMPANY1)
UID is (AAC COMPANY1USRTEST)

All of the above rule entry UID strings would match USRTEST logonid.