ASKTIME

Request current date and time of day.

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ASKTIME

>>-ASKTIME--+--------------------+-----------------------------><
            '-ABSTIME(data-area)-'   

This command is threadsafe.

 

Description

ASKTIME updates the date (EIBDATE) and CICS® time-of-day clock (EIBTIME) fields in the EIB. These two fields initially contain the date and time when the task started.

In response to an ASKTIME command, CICS issues an MVS™ STCK macro and modifies this by a local time difference. Thus, if your MVS TOD (hardware) clock is set to, say, GMT, and the local time is defined as British Summer Time (BST), it is BST that is stored in the EIBTIME field.

Refer to EXEC interface block for details of the EIB.

Options

ABSTIME(data-area)
specifies the data area for the time, in packed decimal, since 00:00 on 1 January 1900 (in milliseconds rounded to the nearest hundredth of a second).

You can use FORMATTIME to change the data into other familiar formats.

Examples

For example, after execution of:
EXEC CICS ASKTIME ABSTIME(utime)

“utime” contains a value similar in format to 002837962864820.

The format of “data-area”is:
COBOL:  PIC S9(15) COMP-3
C       char data_area[8];
PL/I:   FIXED DEC(15)
ASM:    PL8