Patent ID: 7685107

Claim:
A method to scan a mainframe partitioned data set (“PDS”), the method comprising: receiving a search criteria comprising two or more expressions for searching a mainframe PDS, at least two of the expressions each comprising a character string to be identified within the mainframe PDS, wherein the mainframe PDS is generated by a mainframe computer system and wherein the mainframe PDS is a data structure comprising one or more members comprised of one or more records, the search criteria further comprising one or more member exclusion expressions that specify one or more members of the mainframe PDS for exclusion from the search; identifying a set of members from the mainframe PDS for scanning and excluding from the set of members one or more members specified by the member exclusion expressions; scanning one or more records contained within the identified one or more members of the mainframe PDS wherein records contained within members specified by the member exclusion expressions are excluded from the scanning; determining whether each scanned record satisfies the search criteria; returning one or more determined records; further comprising generating a command to create a new PDS member containing the determined record.