Rational Developer for System z
COBOL for Windows, Version 7.5, Programming Guide


Using file system status codes

Often the two-digit file status code is too general to pinpoint the disposition of a request. You can get more detailed information about STL and Btrieve file-system input and output requests by coding a second data item in the FILE STATUS clause:

FILE STATUS IS data-name-1 data-name-8

The data item data-name-1 specifies the two-digit COBOL file status key, which must be a two-character category alphanumeric or category national item, or a two-digit zoned decimal or national decimal item. The data item data-name-8 specifies a data item that contains the file-system status code when the COBOL file status key is not zero. data-name-8 is at least 6 bytes long, and must be an alphanumeric item.

If data-name-8 is 6 bytes long, it contains the status code; if data-name-8 is longer than 6 bytes, it also contains a message with further information:

01  my-file-status-2.
    02 exception-return-value PIC 9(6).
    02 additional-info        PIC X(100).

In the example above, if you tried to open a file with a different definition than the one with which it was created, return code 39 would be returned in exception-return-value, and a message that tells which keys you need in order to perform the open would be returned in additional-info.

Example: checking file system status codes

related references
STL file system


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