A criteria definition can include the identifier of a run time panel, to enable interactive entry of variable data for the criteria. This panel must request entry of data for variables within the set of criteria.
You can specify a criteria exit, an NCL procedure to be executed during the process of building the set of criteria. The purpose of the criteria exit is to enable the initialization and editing of the run time panel and specification of variable data that is to be included in the set of criteria.
You can specify a data source for the criteria definition. The purpose of this is to allow the criteria exit to determine the type of data to which the criteria are applied. This enables the definition of a general purpose criteria exit that can be used by multiple criteria definitions (since the exit determines the type of data and processes accordingly).
Exit parameters are passed to the criteria exit when it is executed in the process of building a set of criteria. A criteria exit can base its behavior on the exit parameters defined within a criteria definition. Thus it is possible to modify the behavior of a set of criteria by changing the exit parameters without having to change the exit procedure.