Skip Type Usage

Use the skip-type attribute of the <param> subtag in the <halts> section to ensure that the optional first parameter of a Cobol IMS CALL is parsed only if necessary. If the actual parameter passed by the program in the first position has the type specified by the regular expression in skip-type, the parameter is filled with a dummy value and the actual value is used in the next parameter.

Note: Skip definitions are also available for use in non-IMS generic API entries.

Example

If the first parameter in a call is a 4-character picture, the following definition inserts a dummy value in the first position and treats the actual value as that of the second parameter:

<param index='1'
       usage='r'
       skip-type='PIC:(X\(4\)'/>

Note: Skip definitions are currently limited to declarations with picture clauses. Use regular expression syntax to specify normalized picture strings.