Additional screens of information are available when you press the relevant PF key, described in CECI options on function keys. You can get back to your original screen by pressing ENTER from an unmodified screen.
This display uses the whole of the body of the screen to display a variable selected with the cursor. The cursor can be positioned at the start of the value of an option on a syntax display, or under the ampersand of a variable in a variables display. Pressing ENTER then gives the expanded area display. The scrolling keys can be used to display all the information if it exceeds a full screen.
Figure 154 shows the result of requesting a variables display, obtained by pressing PF5. For each variable associated with the current interpreter session, it shows the name, length, and value.
READ FILE('FILEA') RIDFLD('009000')INTO(&REC) VARIABLES LENGTH DATA &DFHC +00016 THIS IS A SAMPLE &DFHW +00046 EXEC CICS WRITEQ QUEUE(' CIS200') FROM(&DFHC) &DFHR +00045 EXEC CICS READQ QUEUE(' CIS200') INTO(&DFHC) &REC +00080 482554 D694 72 WIDGET, .007 TEST 100 PF 1 HELP 2 HEX 3 END 4 EIB 5 VAR 6 USER 9 MSG
The first three variables displayed are created for you by CECI and always appear unless you explicitly delete them. They are designed to help you create command lists, as described in Saving commands, as well as to serve as examples.
After these three, you see any variables that you have created. The fourth one in Figure 154, &REC, is the result of executing:
READ FILE('FILEA') RID('009000') INTO(&REC)
Normally, the value supplied for an option in the command line is taken as a character string constant. However, sometimes you need to specify a variable to represent this value, as when you want to connect two commands through option values.
For example, to change a record with CECI, you might first enter:
EXEC CICS READ UPDATE INTO(&REC)
FILE('FILEA') RID('009000')
You would then modify the record as required by changing the variable &REC, and then enter:
EXEC CICS REWRITE FROM(&REC) FILE('FILEA')
The ampersand (&) in the first position tells CECI that you are specifying a variable.
A variable is also useful when the values of the options cause the command to exceed the line length of the command input area. Creating variables with the required values and specifying the variable names in the command overcomes the line length limitation.
Variables can have a data type of character, fullword, halfword, or packed decimal, and you can create them in any of the following ways:
Character variables are initialized to blanks. The others are initialized to zero in the appropriate form. Once a variable is created, you can change the value by modifying the data field on the variables display.
You can also delete a variable, although you do not usually need to, as CECI discards all variables at session end. To delete one before session end, position the cursor under the ampersand that starts the name, press ERASE EOF, and then press ENTER.
You can display the EIB associated with the CECI transaction by pressing PF4. Figure 155 shows an example of the contents of the EXEC interface block (EIB).
READ FILE('FILEA') RIDFLD('009000') EXEC INTERFACE BLOCK EIBTIME = +0124613 EIBDATE = +0091175 EIBTRNID = 'CECI' EIBTASKN = +0000046 EIBTRMID = 'S200' EIBCPOSN = +00004 EIBCALEN = +00000 EIBAID = X'7D' EIBFN = X'0000' EIBRCODE = X'000000000000' EIBDS = '........' EIBREQID = '........' EIBRSRCE = ' ' EIBSYNC = X'00' EIBFREE = X'00' EIBRECV = X'00' EIBATT = X'00' EIBEOC = X'00' + EIBFMH = X'00' PF 1 HELP 2 HEX 3 END 4 EIB 5 VAR 6 USER 7 SBH 8 SFH 9 MSG 10 SB 11 SF
The fields in the EIB are described for programming purposes in the CICS® Application Programming Reference manual.
When there are more messages than CECI can display on the message line, you can display all of them by pressing PF9.
READ SYNTAX MESSAGES S FILE must be specified. S RIDFLD must be specified. PF 1 HELP 2 HEX 3 END 4 EIB 5 VAR 6 USER 7 SBH 8 SFH 10 SB 11 SF