1) SORT FIELDS=(20,4,CH,D,10,3,CH,D) OUTREC FIELDS=(7:20,4,C' FUTURE ',20,2,10,3,1Z,1,9,13,7, 24,57,TRAN=LTOU,6X'FF') This example illustrates how a fixed-length input data set can be sorted and reformatted for output. The SORTIN LRECL is 80 bytes. The reformatted output records are fixed length with a record size of 103 bytes. SOLRF (the IBM-supplied default) is in effect, so unless the SORTOUT LRECL is specified or available, it will automatically be set to the reformatted record length of 103. in the above example i have some doubts that a) sort fields=(20,4,CH,D,10,3,CH,D) -what exactly it does and this fields related to output record fields or input record fields b)outrec used to refprmat the records after sorting that means could please reply me as soon as possible Thanks. Venkat

Tesco,