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 the i5/OS® operating system is started.
You can bring system values into your program or procedure and manipulate them as variables using the Retrieve System Value (RTVSYSVAL) command:
RTVSYSVAL SYSVAL(system-value-name) RTNVAR(CL-variable-name)
The CL variable for returned value (RTNVAR) parameter specifies the name of the variable in your CL program or 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.