Primary Formatting of System Symbols
Certain system symbols must first be converted from their internal representation into a character representation before the end formatting can be applied to them. The following system symbols require a primary conversion:
The relevant components are extracted from the system date or system time. Leading zeros are eliminated if the Z formatting option is specified.
The default behavior is that the system date is printed according to the setting in the user master record or according to the country-dependent formatting specified in a SET COUNTRY command.
If a date mask has been defined (using SET DATE MASK), then the formatting specified there is used for the output.
The default behavior is that the current system time is printed in the form
hours:minutes:seconds
If an alternative time mask is specified (using SET TIME MASK) then this mask overrides the default setting.
This symbols are initially converted using the options specified in the form of the page definition.
This date representation is always formatted using the JPDAT conversion routine.
All remaining system symbols are treated by the primary conversion as a character string and thus are not converted.
The end conversion is started when the primary conversion is complete.