CoreProgramming32 min
PL/I fundamentals
PL/I is the other big business language on z/OS, still running core systems at banks, insurers and utilities. Learn how programs are structured, how data is declared, how ON-units handle errors and end of file, and how to read PL/I if you come from COBOL.
What you will be able to do
- Recognise the structure of a PL/I program: procedures, BEGIN blocks and DECLARE statements
- Declare and use FIXED DECIMAL, FIXED BINARY, CHARACTER, BIT, POINTER, structure and array data
- Handle ENDFILE, ERROR, CONVERSION and ZERODIVIDE with ON-units and read record and stream I/O
- Compile and run PL/I under z/OS and map PL/I data to its COBOL equivalents
Lessons
- Where PL/I is used and how a program is builtPL/I was designed by IBM in the 1960s to serve both business and scientific programmers.
- PL/I data types, structures and built-in functionsPL/I describes data by attributes: whether a number is decimal or binary, fixed or floating, and how many digits it has.
- ON-units, file I/O and running PL/I on z/OSPL/I reports events such as end of file, bad data and division by zero as conditions, and you decide what happens with ON-units.
Track your progress and earn a certificate.
Free account, 15 quiz questions for this subject.