Basic Skills › How to Enter Commands, Parameters, Subcommands, and Line Commands › Parameter Conventions › Mark an Omitted Parameter Position

Mark an Omitted Parameter Position

A positional parameter must be placed in a specific position among the parameters you enter. Positional parameters are interpreted based on their order in a series of parameters. You account for any omitted positional parameter by entering a comma in its place. Except, however, if the omitted parameters are to the right of the last parameter you entered. Then you do not need to enter commas to show where they would be placed.

The following examples show parameters entered on the ACTIVITY command. When the jobname and type parameters are not specified, commas are inserted in their places.

ACTIVITY ABC

This example uses the jobname parameter.

ACTIVITY ,TSU

This example omits the jobname parameter, but uses the type parameter. The comma before the TSU represents the omitted jobname.

ACTIVITY ,,OUT

This example omits both the jobname and type parameters, and uses the status parameter OUT. The two commas preceding OUT represent the omitted jobname and type.

ACTIVITY ABC22,NOI,ALL

This example shows how you can enter all three parameters. Commas separate the parameters. You can use spaces to separate the parameters instead of commas.