How to prevent dropping of leading zeros in JCL with DE and Z-os agent

Products

• CA-11
• DSERIES- SERVER
• CA Workload Automation DE - System Agent (dSeries)

Issue/Introduction

When a DATE (or any numeric) variable is defined in DE and passed to a JCL, the JCL on the z/OS side may drop leading zeros.
E.g.
DATE = %(APPL.NWMM)%(APPL.NWDD)%(APPL.NWYY)

The value is passed to the z/OS job: 
....
// DCB=(SNY1.DSCB),UNIT=DISK,SPACE=(TRK,(1)) 
//SYSIN DD * 
%DATE 

Resolves as
.....
// DCB=(SNY1.DSCB),UNIT=DISK,SPACE=(TRK,(1)) 
//SYSIN DD * 
21518 

The date should be 021518.  The leading zero gets dropped.

Environment

CA Workload Automation DE R12
CA WA Agent for z/OS

Cause

The JCL treats the variable as numeric, which causes the zero to be dropped.

Resolution

When defining variables in DE, set it as string variable.  By adding the quotes around the value, it will change from integer to string.
E.g.
%(APPL.NWMM)%(APPL.NWDD)%(APPL.NWYY) 
TO 
"%(APPL.NWMM)%(APPL.NWDD)%(APPL.NWYY)" 
​

Additional Information