CICSPlex SM argument values

You must specify the parenthesized argument values that follow options in an API command.

These values are as follows:
data-value
A sending argument that is used to pass data from your program to CICSPlex® SM.
The data you pass can be fullword binary data, fixed or variable length character data, or unspecified. If the data type is unspecified, CICSPlex SM assumes a composite data structure made up of multiple fields of varying data types. The argument can be in one of these forms:
  • Variable name
  • Self-defining term
  • Expression
data-value includes data-ref as a subset.
data-ref
A receiving (or sending and receiving) argument that is used primarily to pass data from CICSPlex SM to your program.

The data type can be any of the same types allowed for data-value arguments. However, the argument must be a named variable.

In some cases you can use a data-ref argument to provide input to CICSPlex SM before CICSPlex SM returns its output to you; for example, you could specify a data-ref argument on the COUNT option of the FETCH command.

data-area
A sending or receiving argument that is used to identify a buffer that contains data. A data-area argument can be considered to be a data-ref argument with an unspecified data type. A data-area argument cannot be defined by a self-defining term or expression; it must be a named variable.
ptr-ref
A receiving argument that is used to pass pointer values from CICSPlex SM to your program.

A ptr-ref argument is a special form of data-ref argument. The data that is being passed is an address pointer, rather than binary or character data.

cpsm-token
A sending or receiving argument that is used to pass identifying tokens that are generated by CICSPlex SM. A cpsm-token argument can be considered to be a data-ref argument with an unspecified data type.

Tokens are created by CICSPlex SM to identify API processing threads, result sets, filters, and notifications.

Because token values are created by CICSPlex SM, your program must receive a token into a variable before it can specify that token on subsequent commands. A token cannot be defined by a self-defining term or expression; it must be a named variable.