What is a Conditional Statement in JCL?

Conditional statements in JCL let your job “decide” which steps to run, based on what happened in previous steps. It’s like telling your JCL: "If the last step failed, do this; otherwise, do that."

This is useful for handling errors or making your job more flexible, without having to run everything every time.

Example:

//STEP1   EXEC PGM=IGYCRCTL               //* Compile the program
//STEP2   EXEC PGM=TESTPROG               //* Run tests
//IF     (STEP1.RC = 0 AND STEP2.RC = 0) THEN
//STEP3   EXEC PGM=COPYOUT                //* Copy output
//ELSE
//STEP4    EXEC PGM=PRTERRPT              //* Print error report if failed      
//ENDIF 

Explanation:

• STEP1: Try to compile program.

• STEP2: Run tests.

• IF: If both STEP1 and STEP2 ended with a return code (RC) of zero, then do STEP3.

• ELSE: If not, then do STEP4.

• ENDIF: End the conditional block.

When is this used?

• Error Handling: Skip steps if a previous step failed.

• Branching Logic: Decide what to do next based on the previous result.