Categories of built-in functions

This section lists built-in functions, subroutines, and pseudovariables by category.

Only full function names are listed in these tables. Existing abbreviations are provided in the sections that describe each built-in function, subroutine, and pseudovariable.

In the discussions of conversions that follow, M and N specify the maximum precision:

M is the maximum precision for FIXED BINARY. This is the value M2 from the compiler option LIMITS(FIXEDBIN(M1,M2)).
N is the maximum precision for FIXED DECIMAL. This is the value N2 from the compiler option LIMITS(FIXEDDEC(N1,N2)).

Arithmetic built-in functions
The arithmetic built-in functions allow you to determine properties of arithmetic values (for example, the SIGN function indicates the sign of an arithmetic variable) and to perform routine arithmetic operations.
Array-handling built-in functions
The array-handling built-in functions operate on array arguments and return an element value.
Buffer-management built-in functions
The buffer-management built-in functions operate on a "buffer", which is an area of storage specified by an address and a number of bytes.
Condition-handling built-in functions
The condition-handling built-in functions enable you to determine the cause of a condition that has occurred.
Date/time built-in functions
These built-in functions return or manipulate date and time information in terms of days, seconds, and character date/time stamps.
Floating-point inquiry built-in functions
The floating-point inquiry built-in functions return information about the floating-point variable arguments that you specify.
Floating-point manipulation built-in functions
The floating-point manipulation built-in functions perform mathematical operations on floating-point variables that you specify and return the result of the operation.
Input/output built-in functions
The input and output built-in functions allow you to determine the current state of a file.
Integer manipulation built-in functions
The integer manipulation built-in functions perform operations on integer variables and return the result of the operation.
JSON built-in functions
This topic lists the JSON built-in functions.
Mathematical built-in functions
All of these functions operate on floating-point values to produce a floating-point result. Any argument that is not floating-point is converted.
Miscellaneous built-in functions
This topic lists the built-in functions that do not fit into any of the other categories.
Ordinal-handling built-in functions
The ordinal-handling built-in functions return information about a specified ordinal.
Precision-handling built-in functions
The precision-handling built-in functions allow you to manipulate variables with specified precisions, and they return the value resulting from the operation.
Pseudovariables
Pseudovariables represent receiving fields. They cannot be nested. This topic lists the built-in pseudovariables.
Storage control built-in functions
The storage control built-in functions allow you to determine the storage requirements and location of variables, to assign special values to area and locator variables, to perform conversion between offset and pointer values, to obtain the number of generations of a controlled variable, and to reference data and methods of objects and classes.
String-handling built-in functions
The string-handling built-in functions simplify the processing of bit, character, graphic, and widechar strings.
Subroutines
Built-in subroutines perform miscellaneous operations that do not necessarily return a result as built-in functions do.

Parent topic: Built-in functions, pseudovariables, and subroutines

Published: 23 December 2018