Null values
CICS® defines a null value for most types of data. CICS sets receiver option values to the null value corresponding to the data type for the option if the option does not apply in a particular situation, and you can use them in sender options to indicate that you want no change to an option value.
The null value for each data type is listed below:
| Data type | Null value |
|---|---|
| Character string (n characters long) | n blanks (X'40') |
| UTF-8 character string (n characters long) | n blanks (X'20') |
| Halfword binary | -1 (X'FFFF') |
| Fullword binary | -1 (X'FFFFFFFF') |
| Doubleword binary | -1 (X'FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF') |
| Pointer (address) | X'FF000000' |
| CVDA (in receiver option) | DFHVALUE(NOTAPPLIC) is 1 |
| CVDA (in sender option) | DFHVALUE(IGNORE) is 1 |
See the Inquiry commands and SET commands for more about these uses.