Skip to Main Content
IBM Z Software


This portal is to open public enhancement requests against IBM Z Software products. To view all of your ideas submitted to IBM, create and manage groups of Ideas, or create an idea explicitly set to be either visible by all (public) or visible only to you and IBM (private), use the IBM Unified Ideas Portal (https://ideas.ibm.com).


Shape the future of IBM!

We invite you to shape the future of IBM, including product roadmaps, by submitting ideas that matter to you the most. Here's how it works:

Search existing ideas

Start by searching and reviewing ideas and requests to enhance a product or service. Take a look at ideas others have posted, and add a comment, vote, or subscribe to updates on them if they matter to you. If you can't find what you are looking for,

Post your ideas
  1. Post an idea.

  2. Get feedback from the IBM team and other customers to refine your idea.

  3. Follow the idea through the IBM Ideas process.


Specific links you will want to bookmark for future use

Welcome to the IBM Ideas Portal (https://www.ibm.com/ideas) - Use this site to find out additional information and details about the IBM Ideas process and statuses.

IBM Unified Ideas Portal (https://ideas.ibm.com) - Use this site to view all of your ideas, create new ideas for any IBM product, or search for ideas across all of IBM.

ideasibm@us.ibm.com - Use this email to suggest enhancements to the Ideas process or request help from IBM for submitting your Ideas.

Status Not under consideration
Categories Other
Created by Guest
Created on Sep 26, 2019

Conditional Comparison Column Exclusion

We need the ability to conditionally exclude columns from processing. For example, if columns 1 through 5 are APPLE, then exclude columns 6 through 10 in the comparison.

We would need to be able to use different versions of this exclusion in the same comparison.

My thought was new process statements which would be a PREFIX of CON (conditional) plus the existing NEXCLUDE and OEXCLUDE process statements, which I've used in the samples below, but I don't care what IBM would name the new process statements.

Like this:
CONNEXCLUDE 'APPLE',COLS 1:5,COLS 6:10
CONNEXCLUDE 'PEAR ',COLS 1:5,COLS 6:10
CONOEXCLUDE 'APPLE',COLS 1:5,COLS 6:10
CONOEXCLUDE 'PEAR ',COLS 1:5,COLS 6:10

The previous SYSIN would not process columns 6-10 if columns 1-5 = 'APPLE' or 'PEAR ' in the new or old datasets.

I tried to make it similar to the existing SYSIN conventions already in use, but if it makes it more clear then something like this could be used:

CONNEXCLUDE COLS 1:5='APPLE',COLS 6:10
CONNEXCLUDE COLS 1:5='PEAR ',COLS 6:10
CONOEXCLUDE COLS 1:5='APPLE',COLS 6:10
CONOEXCLUDE COLS 1:5='PEAR ',COLS 6:10

Alternatively, new optional keywords could be added to the existing NEXCLUDE and OEXCLUDE process statements.

NEXCLUDE COLS 6:10 IF COLS 1:5='APPLE'
NEXCLUDE COLS 6:10 IF COLS 1:5='PEAR '

Keeping in mind I need to be able to specify the process statement multiple times to conditionally exclude columns from comparison for multiple values.

Idea priority High
  • Guest
    Reply
    |
    Sep 27, 2019

    We understand and appreciate the general idea of the suggestion, but we have previously investigated adding similar functionality and reached the conclusion that SuperC is quite complex enough as it is and needs to focus on its primary function. We feel that adding support for new concepts from general programming languages to SuperC itself is not the way to go.

    We use SuperC ourselves to check our own regression test output for various products (such as HLASM itself) in various forms, but we preprocess the files to be compared with simple programs (for example using CMS Pipelines, REXX or PL/I) that can replace harmlessly varying information such as dates, times and PTF numbers with dummy values, so that the comparisons only show significant differences. This approach admittedly requires the use of temporary files to pass the preprocessed output to the SuperC comparison, but it is very flexible and easily modified to handle new requirements.