Generic values and characters with special meanings
The following information describes generic values, and characters that have special meaning when you build MQSC commands.
Wherever a parameter can have a generic value, it is entered ending with an asterisk (*), for example ABC*. A generic value means 'all values beginning with'; so ABC* means 'all values beginning with ABC'.
If characters that require quotation marks are used in the value, the asterisk must be placed inside the quotation marks, thus 'abc*'. The asterisk must be the last or only character in the value.
The question mark (?) and colon (:) are not allowed in generic values.
| Character | Description |
|---|---|
| Blanks are used as separators. Multiple blanks are equivalent to a single blank, except in strings that have apostrophes (') round them. Any trailing blanks in those string attributes which are based on MQCHARV types are treated as significant. | |
| , | Commas are used as separators. Multiple commas are equivalent to a single comma, except in strings that have apostrophes (') round them. |
| ' | An apostrophe indicates the beginning or end of a string. IBM® WebSphere® MQ leaves all characters that have quotation marks round them exactly as they are entered. The containing apostrophes are not included when calculating the length of the string. |
| '' | Single quotation marks inside a string are treated by IBM WebSphere MQ as one character when calculating the length of the string and the string is not terminated. |
| = | On z/OS®, an equals sign indicates the start of a parameter value which is ended by a comma or blank. |
| ( | An open parenthesis indicates the beginning of a parameter value or list of values. |
| ) | A close parenthesis indicates the end of a parameter value or list of values. |
| : | A colon indicates an inclusive range. For example (1:5) means (1,2,3,4,5). This notation can be used only in TRACE commands. |
| * | An asterisk means "all". For example, DISPLAY TRACE (*) means display all traces, and DISPLAY QUEUE (PAY*) means display all queues with names that begin with PAY. |
When you need to use any of these special characters in a field (for example as part of a description), you must enclose the whole string in single quotation marks.