TIME=0 on step and LENGTH of the field in CICS questions.

[Ankush Baghat]

Hi,

I need help in the answers of folwooing two question which were asked in an interview:

1. If we provide TIME=0 in the STEP and execute the job, what can happen? And what should happen ideally?

2. Consider, for example, a field is defined of length 15, but we move 'Ankush' in it. I want to know the length of this filed.In other words, I want to find out the length of the field in cics map()?

I could not answer these questions, can anyone please guide me on these questions.

[Robert Sample]

The first one is answered, at least partly, in the JCL Reference manual in the MVS bookshelf:

0 Indicates that the step is to use the time remaining from the previous step. If the step exceeds the remaining time available, the step abnormally terminates.

For the second one, the length of the data on the map is 6 bytes. The remaining 9 bytes of the field will, most likely, be X'00' (known as LOW-VALUES in COBOL). The field is 15 bytes no matter what data is put into it.

[vikriih]

refer the below examples:
Example 7 //TEST1 JOB MSGLEVEL=(1,1)
//STEP1 EXEC PGM=USES40,TIME=(,50)
//STEP2 EXEC PGM=USESREST,TIME=0

STEP1 can use the processor for 50 seconds. If STEP1 actually uses the processor for only 40 seconds, STEP2 can use the processor for 10 seconds, because that is the time remaining from the previous step.

Example 8 //TEST1 JOB MSGLEVEL=(1,1),TIME=(,50)
//STEP1 EXEC PGM=USES15,TIME=(,25)
//STEP2 EXEC PGM=USES30,TIME=(,40)
//STEP3 EXEC PGM=USESREST,TIME=0

STEP1 can use the processor for 25 seconds. If STEP1 actually uses the processor for only 15 seconds, the time limit for STEP2 is the smaller of the following values: •The job time remaining (35 seconds)
•The time limit specified on the EXEC statement for STEP2 (40 seconds).

In this case, the job time remaining is the smaller value, so STEP2 can use the processor for 35 seconds. If STEP2, then, actually uses the processor for only 30 seconds, STEP3 can use the processor for 5 seconds, because that is the time remaining from the previous step
hope that helps for question 1...

[vikriih]

Length in CICS map is defined by LENGTH field as in the following statement

DFHMDF POS=(4,1),LENGTH=5,ATTRB=(ASKIP,NORM),INITIAL='Name:'