Retrieve system values

A system value contains control information for the operation of certain parts of the system.

IBM^® supplies several types of system values. For example, QDATE and QTIME are date and time system values, which you set when i5/OS™ is started.

You can bring system values into your procedure and manipulate them as variables using the Retrieve System Value (RTVSYSVAL) command:

RTVSYSVAL  SYSVAL(system-value-name)  RTNVAR(CL-variable-name)

The RTNVAR parameter specifies the name of the variable in your CL procedure that is to receive the value of the system value.

The type of the variable must match the type of the system value. For character and logical system values, the length of the CL variable must equal the length of the value. For decimal values, the length of the variable must be greater than or equal to the length of the system value.

Example: Retrieve QTIME system value
In this example, QTIME is received and moved to a variable, which is then compared with another variable.
QDATE system value
In many applications, you may want to use the current date in your procedure by retrieving the system value QDATE and placing it in a variable. You may also want to change the format of that date for use in your procedure.

Parent topic: Retrieve values that can be used as variables

Related information

System values