Editing Job Control Language (section)

===Rules for coding JCL statements===

Each JCL statement is divided into five fields:<ref>Ashley and Fernandez, ''Job Control Language'', pp. 12–16.</ref>

  Identifier-Field Name-Field Operation-Field Parameter-Field Comments-Field
                  ^          ^               ^               ^
               no space    space           space           space

<var>Identifier-Field</var> should be concatenated with <var>Name-Field</var>, i.e. there should be no spaces between them.

* <var>Identifier-Field</var> (<code>//</code>): The identifier field indicates to the system that a statement is a JCL statement rather than data. The identifier field consists of the following:
** Columns 1 and 2 of all JCL statements, except the delimiter statement, contain <code>//</code>
** Columns 1 and 2 of the delimiter statement contain <code>/*</code>
** Columns 1, 2, and 3 of a JCL comment statement contain <code>//*</code>
* <var>Name-Field</var>: The name field identifies a particular statement so that other statements and the system can refer to it. For JCL statements, it should be coded as follows:
** The name must begin in column 3.
** The name is 1 through 8 alphanumeric or national (<code>$</code>, <code>#</code>, <code>@</code>) characters.
** The first character must be an alphabetic.
** The name must be followed by at least one blank.
* <var>Operation-Field</var>: The operation field specifies the type of statement, or, for the command statement, the command. <var>Operation-Field</var> should be coded as follows:
** The operation field consists of the characters in the syntax box for the statement.
** The operation follows the name field.
** The operation must be preceded and followed by at least one blank.
** The operation will be one of <code>JOB</code>, <code>EXEC</code> and <code>DD</code>.
* <var>Parameter-Field</var>: The parameter field, also sometimes referred to as the operand field, contains parameters separated by commas. Parameter field should be coded as follows:
** The parameter field follows the operation field.
** The parameter field must be preceded by at least one blank.
** The parameter field contains parameters which are keywords that used in the statement to provide information such as the program or dataset name.
* <var>Comments-Field</var>: This contains [[comment (computer programming)|comments]]. <var>Comments-Field</var> should be coded as Follows:
** The comments field follows the parameter field.
** The comments field must be preceded by at least one blank.