CL Programming
Unlike variables, data areas are objects and must be created before they
can be used. A data area can be created as:
- A character string that can be as long as 2000 characters.
- A decimal value with different attributes, depending on whether it is used
only in a CL program or procedure or also with other high-level language
programs or procedures. For CL procedures and programs, the data area
can have as many as 15 digits to the left of the decimal point and as many as
9 digits to the right, but only 15 digits total. For other languages,
the data area can have as many as 15 digits to the left of the decimal point
and as many as 9 to the right, for a total of up to 24 digits.
- A logical value '0' or '1', where '0' can
mean off, false, or no; and '1' can mean on, true, or
yes.
When you create a data area, you can also specify an initial value for the
data area. If you do not specify one, the following is assumed:
- 0 for decimal.
- Blanks for character.
- '0' for logical.
To create a data area, use the Create Data Area (CRTDTAARA) command. In
the following example, a data area is created to pass a customer number from
one program to another:
CRTDTAARA DTAARA(CUST) TYPE(*DEC) +
LEN(5 0) TEXT('Next customer number')
[ Top of Page | Previous Page | Next Page | Table of Contents | Index ]
(C) Copyright IBM Corporation 1992, 2005. All Rights Reserved.