Conventions used in the call descriptions

For each call, this chapter gives a description of the parameters and usage of the call. This is followed by typical invocations of the call, and typical declarations of its parameters, in the RPG programming language.

The description of each call contains the following sections:

Call name

The call name, followed by a brief description of the purpose of the call.

Parameters

For each parameter, the name is followed by its data type in parentheses ( ) and its direction; for example:

CMPCOD (9-digit decimal integer) -- output
There is more information about the structure data types in Elementary data types.

The direction of the parameter can be:

Input

You (the programmer) must provide this parameter.

Output

The call returns this parameter.

Input/output

You must provide this parameter, but it is modified by the call.

There is also a brief description of the purpose of the parameter, together with a list of any values that the parameter can take.

The last two parameters in each call are a completion code and a reason code. The completion code indicates whether the call completed successfully, partially, or not at all. Further information about the partial success or the failure of the call is given in the reason code.

Usage notes

Additional information about the call, describing how to use it and any restrictions on its use.

RPG invocation

Typical invocation of the call, and declaration of its parameters, in RPG.

Other notational conventions are:

Constants

Names of constants are shown in uppercase; for example, OOOUT.

Arrays

In some calls, parameters are arrays of character strings whose size is not fixed. In the descriptions of these parameters, a lowercase "n" represents a numeric constant. When you code the declaration for that parameter, replace the "n" with the numeric value you require.