Multiple choice technology mainframe

AN INVALID RECORD WAS ENCOUNTERED ON A GET OPERATION. THE LENGTH FIELD OF A RECORD DESCRIPTOR WORD (RDW) FOR A VARIABLE LENGTH RECORD SPECIFIES A VALUE LESS THAN 4.

  1. S002 - 14

  2. S002 - 24

  3. S002 - 04

  4. S002 - 34
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C Correct answer
Explanation

Invalid RDW (Record Descriptor Word) with length less than 4 for variable-length records maps to S002 - 04. This is a specific validation error where the RDW length field is below the minimum 4-byte threshold. Other codes represent different record format errors.

AI explanation

On z/OS, a GET macro against a variable-length record whose Record Descriptor Word (RDW) length field is invalid (here, less than 4 — the minimum valid RDW length, since the RDW itself occupies 4 bytes) triggers an S002 abend with a distinguishing reason code appended. Reason code 04 is the specific code IBM assigns to 'invalid RDW length less than 4' under the S002 abend family, distinguishing it from other S002 sub-reasons (like 14, 24, 34) which correspond to different I/O SYNAD error conditions. This is standard access-method (QSAM/VSAM) error-code trivia rather than something derivable from first principles.

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