:DATA

Use the :DATA script statement to explicitly declare a script line as a data line. Data lines are Job Control Language (JCL) lines in scripts that contain commands for processing tasks in target systems. All script lines that are not comment lines and do not contain script statements are treated as data lines by default.

Important!

Conflicts can arise if a data line starts with a colon or exclamation mark. Always declare such lines explicitly using the :DATA statement.
The :DATA statement can only be used in Job objects.

Syntax

: DATA Statement

Parameters

Parameter	Description	Format
Statement	Command for the specific target system. Script variables in the statement are replaced with their values when the script is processed. The statement can be written without quotation marks; all characters up to the end of the line are recognized.	Script literal or script variable

Examples

The following example is from a PC batch file script. The script branches to a label where error handling is performed. Because labels in PC batch files start with a colon, the line is explicitly declared with :DATA to avoid conflicts.

!...

GOTO ERRORMESSAGE

!...

: DATA ":ERRORMESSAGE"

!...