Basic Demo Session › Control Program Execution › How to Stop Your Program by Setting Breakpoints

How to Stop Your Program by Setting Breakpoints

One of the problems with traditional testing methods is that you have little or no control over program processing. You simply initiate the task, and the program either runs to completion or abends.

With the application you can control program execution in a number of ways. For example, you can set stops, called breakpoints, anywhere in your program. Four types of breakpoints you can set are unconditional, conditional, variable‑change, and request breakpoints.

• When you set an unconditional breakpoint at an instruction, the program stops just before the instruction is executed
• When you set a conditional breakpoint at an instruction, the program stops only if a condition you specified is met, such as a counter equaling or exceeding some value. You can also set a conditional breakpoint to stop at any instruction when the condition you specified is met.
• When you set a variable‑change breakpoint, the program stops at any instruction if the value of the variable you specify has changed. This is a special type of conditional breakpoint.
• When you set a request breakpoint, the program stops before all CICS commands and macros and other program calls (such as calls to DL/I or DB2) or just before specific CICS commands (such as all READ or WRITE commands)