Table 12. Command syntax conventions (continued)
Symbol Meaning
An arrow returning to the left above a set of items means that more than one item can be selected.
A
B
C
Use with the named section in place of its name.
Name
Name:
A
B
Punctuation and uppercase characters
Lowercase characters appearing like
this
Code exactly as shown.
Code your own text, as appropriate.
For example, with FILE(
name
) you must code FILE and () unchanged, but are free to code any valid text string for the name of your file.
Argument values
The parenthesized argument values that follow options in a CICS command are specified as follows: v data-value v data-area v CICS-value data area (or cvda) v pointer-value (or ptr-value) v pointer-ref (or ptr-ref) v name v label v hhmmss
Arguments can be used as either of the following:
Sender
Data is passed from the application to CICS. All argument types can be used as senders, but data-values and pointer-values are preferred to data-areas and pointer-references as sending arguments.
Receiver
Data is passed from CICS to the application. Only data-areas, CVDAs, and pointer-references can be receivers.
Note:
An argument used to send and receive data should be defined as a receiver.
Chapter 31. Programming reference
307
COBOL argument values
Conversion note:
OS/VS COBOL and COBOL II treat COMP fields as if the
BINARY attribute had been specified, whereas COBOL/400 treats these fields as if the COMP-3 attribute had been specified.
This is because COMP fields default to the numeric representation that is most efficient for the system concerned. If you are porting applications from other CICS platforms, you must check for references to COMP and USAGE IS
COMPUTATIONAL because these may be interpreted differently on the source and target systems; then change all COMP fields to BINARY.
The argument values can be replaced as follows: v
“data-value” can be replaced by any COBOL data name of the correct data type for the argument, or by a constant that can be converted to the correct type for the argument. The data type can be specified as one of the following:
– Halfword binary—PIC S9(4) COMP
– Fullword binary—PIC S9(8) COMP
– Character string—PIC X(n), where “n” is the number of bytes
“data-value” includes “data-area” as a subset. v
“data-area” can be replaced by any COBOL data name of the correct data type for the argument. The data type can be specified as one of the following:
– Halfword binary—PIC S9(4) COMP
– Fullword binary—PIC S9(8) COMP
– Character string—PIC X(n), where “n” is the number of bytes
If the data type is unspecified, the data-area can refer to an elementary or group item. v
“cvda” is described in “CICS-value data areas (CVDAs)” on page 309.
v “pointer-value” or “ptr-value” can be replaced by any COBOL/400 data name declared as a POINTER variable. Consult the
COBOL/400 Reference
for details. v
“pointer-ref” or “ptr-ref” can be replaced by any COBOL/400 data name declared as a POINTER variable. Consult the
COBOL/400 Reference
for details.
Fields used as pointers in mainframe CICS are usually defined as PIC S9(8)
COMP. Remember to change this to USAGE IS POINTER for COBOL/400. v
“name” can be replaced by either of the following:
– A character string in single quotation marks (that is, a nonnumeric literal). If this is shorter than the required length, it is padded on the right with blanks.
– A COBOL data-area with a length equal to the length required for the name.
The value in the data-area is the name to be used by the argument. If the data-area is shorter than the required length, the excess characters are undefined.
v
“label” can be replaced by any COBOL paragraph name or section name. v
“hhmmss” can be replaced by a decimal constant or by any COBOL data name of the data type PIC S9(7) COMP-3. The value must be of the form 0HHMMSS+, where:
HH
represents hours from 00 through 99
MM
represents minutes from 00 through 59
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CICS for iSeries Application Programming Guide V5
