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Status Future consideration
Workspace z/OS
Categories LE
Created by Guest
Created on Feb 27, 2026

RELATED IDEAS

Epoch Time LE Functions for COBOL

z/OS COBOL 6.4: Epoch time formats (also called UNIX time) are used in many programming environments/applications. To properly interface with an application, I had to write my own COBOL pgm to derive the proper Epoch time. Useful LE functions to calculate the Epoch time (and maybe reverse?) would be helpful in commerce and interfacing with non-z/OS applications

Idea priority Medium
  • Guest
    May 22, 2026
    Thank you for the quick response. I have accepted this idea as an uncommitted candidate.
    Reply
  • Guest
    May 22, 2026
    Language Environment has a series of callable services that are available for date and time: https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos/3.2.0?topic=services-date-time-callable
    However, our callable services use the Lilian format. Would you be looking for similar callable services that use Epoch time instead of a Lilian date?
    Note that callable services are not supported for AMODE64 applications.

    I was also curious if you've experimented with interlanguage calls as a solution to this issue? One way that this problem could be solved today is by making a call to the time() C function from COBOL.
    https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos/3.2.0?topic=applications-communicating-between-c-cobol
    https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos/3.2.0?topic=functions-timetime64-determine-current-utc-time
    1 reply

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