Program arguments

You can pass program arguments to the PL/I, COBOL or Java™ main application from z/OS Batch Runtime.

For PL/I or COBOL programs, you can pass a single argument in standard format as it is specified on the PARM= keyword of the //EXEC JCL statement. The following statement shows an example:

bcd.applicationArgs.1=This is PARM= main arg to Cobol

For Java programs, you can pass program arguments as a string array to the Java main method, as shown in the following example; Java main methods accept this as a variable length string array per the usual specified behavior:

bcd.applicationArgs.1=500
bcd.applicationArgs.2=string input 1
bcd.applicationArgs.3=My userid

You do not have to include a single quote (') in the string value you are passing. Also, note that trailing blanks are not supported in the string.