INTO and SET

If an application is to receive data by issuing a RECEIVE command, you must specify either the INTO or the SET option. These options specify the address of data that is received. The guidelines for using either INTO or SET are as follows:
  • Use INTO if your application program provides a suitable buffer to which CICS® should return data.
  • Use SET if you want CICS to obtain a suitably sized buffer. Note that CICS might, at a later time, reuse buffers that were generated with the SET option. The minimum life of a SET buffer varies from command to command and is documented with each command.

If an application issues a RECEIVE command simply to test whether a terminal user has pressed an attention identifier (AID) key, you can leave out both the INTO and the SET option. If an application uses a RECEIVE to accept an AID, ensure that the application issues a HANDLE AID command before the RECEIVE. For more information about the attention identifier keys, see HANDLE AID.