Accessing Main Storage: CORE › Main Storage Capabilities › CORE Main Storage Displays

CORE Main Storage Displays

The CORE facility provides two storage display formats: structured and dump. When available, the structured format is the default.

The structured format gives field names and displays storage field‑by‑field, which makes it easy to read and modify. The structured format displays a COBOL data structure in DMAP sequence, an Assembler data structure in DSECT sequence, and common CICS areas in DSECT sequence. You do not have to know or remember field lengths to determine their contents. The basic format of the structured display is:

By contrast, the traditional dump format starts from a given point (which you specify) and is a continuous stream of values. You have to remember field lengths to know where one field stops and the next one starts.

Both formats provide similar functional capabilities, including:

• Full‑screen edit permits you to dynamically modify displayed storage
• CORE command line displays the last CORE command executed. Change this command to any CORE or CNTL command.
• Message line notifies you of: invalid storage values, the values of numeric data, additional CORE requests queued for display, or if the requested storage area was not found.
• PF keys let you scroll, switch the format displayed, access help, and return to a menu or breakpoint.