Introduction › What You Can Do With Batch Processing › Variables

Variables

In many of the batch facility statements you specify variables:

• When extracting data, you specify variables with specific values as extraction criteria. If the data matches the criteria, the user, profile, or session information will be extracted.
• When creating reports, you specify the variables that you want listed in the report.
• When updating data, you specify values to be assigned to for variables.

For a complete list of variables, see the appendix Variables. Most of the variables correspond to fields that can be modified in online administration.

There are also special batch variables and administration variables that do not correspond to online fields. These variables can be used only for extraction and reporting (they cannot be updated). They provide information about:

• The last update of the record
• The user's administration authority
• The profiles assigned to the user
• The user's View facility authority

For example, by using these variables, you could extract all users who have a specific profile, and then create a report listing these users, their profiles, and which user groups they can administer.