How conditions are represented

A condition token is used to communicate information about a condition to Language Environment, message services, callable services, and routines. The token is a 12-byte data type with fields that indicate the following information about a condition:

• Severity of a condition
• Associated message number
• Facility ID: This field identifies the owner of the condition (Language Environment, Language Environment component, or user-specified). It is also used to identify a file containing message text that is unique for the condition.
• Instance specific information: This field is created if the condition requires that data or text be inserted into a message, for example, a variable name. This field also contains qualifying data, which can be used to specify data (input or output) to be used when a routine resumes processing after a condition occurs.