Delimiters

The following characters are used as operand delimiters:

Quotation mark
Designates the beginning or ending of a literal, as for example, a heading. When a quoted string contains a quotation mark, use two quotation marks; for example, ‘THAT''S ALL FOLKS'. CICS PA replaces each pair of consecutive quotation marks with a single quotation mark before processing the command string. The ending quotation mark of a quoted string can be followed by a comma or a left or right parenthesis. Quoted strings cannot exceed 256 characters.
Dash or hyphen
Separates a range of values and, except when used in a quoted string, is treated as such. If a dash is followed by another delimiter, the second value is null.
Parentheses
Enclose suboperands or values. The right parenthesis must be followed by another right parenthesis, a comma, a space, or a left parenthesis.
Equal sign
Designates that a value follows. For example, A = B is treated as A(B). The equal sign can be used in this way only when followed by a single value. If you assign more than one value, use parentheses. When the equal sign is followed by a left parenthesis, it is ignored.
Comma
Delimits operands. (Omit the comma when its use is redundant). Consecutive commas cause generation of a null in the scan list, and must be counted toward the maximum number of operands allowed.