Internal identifiers

Several APIs either require or allow you to use an internal identifier (ID) to identify an external name. When you use an internal ID, the processing can be faster because the system does not need to convert the external name to the internal ID.

A variety of terminology is used to identify an internal ID. Here are some examples:

• Work management uses an internal job identifier.
• Spooling uses an internal spooled file identifier.
• Security uses the term handle to mean the user profile that is currently running the job.
• Message handling uses the term message key (also appears in CL commands) to identify a message in a message queue.

The internal values are often accessed in one API and then used in another. For example, if you want a list of jobs, you use the List Jobs (QUSLJOB) API, which provides the internal job ID for each job in the list. You can use the internal job ID to access a spooled file for a job with the Retrieve Spooled File Attributes (QUSRSPLA) API.