If you wish to stop sorting after say N number of records then you can use the following Where n is the number of records after which sorting is required to be stopped. Example JCL is provided below. ; ; ; ; //SORTIN DD DISP=SHR,DSN=USERID.ABC.INPFILE, //SORTOUT DD DSN=USERID.ABC.OUTFILE, // SPACE=(TRK,(30,10),RLSE), // DCB=(RECFM=FB,LRECL=80,BLKSIZE=0,DSORG=PS) //SORTWK01 DD UNIT=DISK,SPACE=(CYL,(20,5),RLSE) //SORTWK02 DD UNIT=DISK,SPACE=(CYL,(20,5),RLSE) //SORTWK03 DD UNIT=DISK,SPACE=(CYL,(20,5),RLSE)