Introduction › Use Batch Control Statements › Blank Spaces and Lines

Blank Spaces and Lines

The examples in this guide show you where to enter spaces in your control statements to separate the various pieces of information. The following rules apply to the use of blank spaces and lines:

• You might want to add spaces in a control statement so that you can read it more easily. You can use any number of spaces where one space is appropriate. You can also enter as many spaces as you like before and after an open or closed parenthesis.
• You can put a line break or blank line anywhere that a space is appropriate. For example, you may want a report that prints three lines of information for each record in an extract file. You could put the definition for each line of the report on a separate line in the control file. You may find it useful to break control statements into multiple lines because of your terminal screen width and for clarity.

  For example, the following four lines in a control file are read as one control statement:

  REPORT GIVING(PF3REPRT) USING(PF3USERS)
              ((' &UIDXNAME ' '&UIDXGRP')
               (' &UIDXMKEY ' '&UIDXJKEY ' '&UIDXPKEY')
               (' &UIDXESCK ' '&UIDXACCS ' '&UIDXPRSV'))
  

• You can put more than one control statement on one line of the control file. For example, consider the following two ADD statements:

  ADD USER (USER18) 
  ADD USER (USER52)
  

• You could put the two statements on one line as follows:

  ADD USER (USER18) ADD USER (USER52)