Rational Developer for System z
Enterprise PL/I for z/OS, Version 3.8, Language Reference Manual

P-format item

The picture (or P) format item describes the character representation of real numeric character values and of character values.

The picture specification of the P-format item, on input, describes the form of the data item expected in the data stream and, in the case of a numeric character specification, how the item's arithmetic value is interpreted. If the indicated character does not appear in the stream, the CONVERSION condition is raised.

On output, the value of the associated element in the data list is converted to the form specified by the picture specification before it is written into the data stream.

Read syntax diagramSkip visual syntax diagram>>-P--'picture-specification'----------------------------------><
 
picture-specification
Is discussed in detail in Picture specification characters.

For example:

  get edit (Name, Total) (P'AAAAA',P'9999');

When this statement is executed, the input file SYSIN is the default. The next five characters input from SYSIN must be alphabetic or blank and they are assigned to Name. The next four characters must be digits and they are assigned to Total.


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