z/OS Block Mode Screen Design › Editing › Input Editing › Input Edit Exit

Input Edit Exit

An input editing exit lets you tailor the behaviors for input editing. The exit is called after all parsing and interpretation is performed, but before the results are stored in the variable and before an error is reported. The exit provides the image of the input field, the characteristics of the field (its type, justification, fill character, state, and so on), the results of the edit (the intermediate result), the attribute address and its characteristics (type, length, and so on), the address of the error mask, and a work area.

The user exit can do the following tasks:

• Alter the image and cause editing to be repeated
• Change the intermediate result
• Set any value it wants in the variable
• Fail the edit
• Flag any character or characters that it wants to as error
• Clear the variable

The user exit reports the actions that it takes using a return code to the edit routines. The return code can be used to direct the edit routines to continue normal processing, re-edit the image, fail the edit (even though the normal action may not have been a failure), convert a new intermediate result and store it in the variable, bypass all processing, or erase the value of the variable.