partitioned data set


partitioned data set

[pär′tish·ənd ′dad·ə ‚set] (computer science) A single data set, divided internally into a directory and one or more sequentially organized subsections called members, residing on a direct access for each device, and commonly used for storage or program libraries.

partitioned data set

(file format)(PDS) A data set on an IBM mainframe thatcontains members, each of which acts like a separate data set.Partitioned data sets are more space-efficient than individualdata sets, because they can put more than one data set on atrack. They are also used to hold libraries, with onefunction per member. The syntax for a member isNAME.OF.PDS(MEMBER) although some systems (such as Phoenix)could use NAME.OF.PDS:MEMBER

Original PDSes were of fixed size, and needed frequentcompression to recover space after deleting or changingmembers. Newer PDS/E Extended PDSes do not have this problem.