Starting the CEMT transaction
You can construct a CEMT request in stages, or you can enter a complete request in one go. The CEMT transaction checks the syntax of requests and diagnoses errors. If your request is syntactically correct, it is processed immediately. If your request cannot be processed because of severe syntax errors, the full syntax of your request is displayed.
About this task
If you put a question mark (?) in front of your request, the syntax of your request is displayed but it is not processed.
If you put a minus sign (-) immediately following CEMT, and are using the main terminal transaction from the system console, CEMT always displays its results in abbreviated format. This is independent of the number of objects returned on the inquiry. Without the use of a minus sign, CEMT commands issued from the system console display the results in expanded format only if a single object is returned.
After you have initiated the CEMT transaction, you need not reenter CEMT on subsequent requests, because the identifier is implied at the beginning of any further request. However, if you are using the system console, you must always start each main terminal request with CEMT.