If you want to omit a parameter and use its default value, you must account for it by inserting a blank enclosed in single quotes (' ') in its place. This is how you would omit parm2 from this example call:

CALL ISPLINK (service-name, parm1, ' ', parm3);

If you need only the first few of a list of parameters, you can omit all other parameters to the right of the last parameter you need, provided that you are certain that none of the remaining parameters are necessary for your invocation. For example, if you are using a service that has five parameters, but you need to use only the first three, code it like this:

CALL ISPLINK (service-name, parm1, parm2, parm3);

These types of parameters can appear in a calling sequence to ISPLINK or ISPLNK:

service-name or keyword

A left-justified character string that you code exactly as shown in the service-name description. The description of the particular service shows the service-name or keyword character string, each of which can be up to 8 characters long. All service names and keywords must be padded with blanks to their maximum length of 8 characters.

single name

A left-justified character string. If the string is less than the maximum length for the particular parameter, it must have a trailing blank to delimit the end of the string. The minimum length for a single name is 1 character. The maximum length for most names is 8 characters; exceptions include the data set name and volume serial.

numeric value

A fullword fixed binary number.

numeric name

A dialog variable in which a number is stored. If these variables are defined in a program module, they can be either fullword fixed binary variables or character string variables. If the values are returned as characters, they are right-justified with leading zeros.

name-list (string format)

A list of dialog variable names coded as a character string. Each name is from 1 to 8 characters in length. The string must be enclosed in parentheses. Within the parentheses, you can separate the names with either commas or blanks. For example:

'(AAA BBB CCC)'
'(AAA,BBB,CCC)'

When the list consists of a single name, you do not need parentheses. You must include a trailing blank if parentheses are not used and if the name is fewer than 8 characters long. A maximum of 254 names can be listed in the string format.

name-list (structure format)

A list of dialog variable names passed in a structure. Each name is from 1 to 8 characters long. The structure must contain this information in the given order:

1.  Count

A fullword fixed binary integer containing the number of names in the list.

2.  Reserved

A fullword fixed binary integer that must contain a value of either 0 or 8.

3.  List of names

Each part of the list must be an 8-byte character string. Within each part, the name of the variable must be left-justified and must have trailing blanks. The maximum number of names in the list is 254.

Note: In general, either form of the name-list (the string format or the structure format) is acceptable where a name-list is referred to in the syntax. However, the ISPEXEC command syntax requires the string format for name-list.

subfield with keyword

A left-justified character string that must be coded exactly as shown. If the subfield does not contain the maximum number of characters, you must specify trailing blanks to fill out the field. For example, if you choose the NO option from STATS(YES│NO ), then ‘NO ’ is passed as a parameter.

data-set-list

A list of data set names or a ddname coded as a character string. The string must be enclosed with parentheses. If a ddname is used, only one must be specified; for example:

'(MYDD1)'

If a list of data set names is used, a maximum of 15 data set names can be specified. Data set names must conform to TSO data set naming conventions. When several data set names are included in the list, they must be separated by commas or blanks. For example:

'('USERID1.PANELS1',PANELS2,PANELS3,'PROJECT1.PANELS')'