HANG

pc

An optional postconditional expression. Caché executes the HANG command if the postconditional expression is true (evaluates to a nonzero numeric value). Caché does not execute the command if the postconditional expression is false (evaluates to zero). For further details, refer to Command Postconditional Expressions in Using Caché ObjectScript.

hangtime

The amount of time to wait, in seconds. This time can be expressed as any numeric expression. You can specify hangtime as an integer to specify whole seconds, or as fractional number to specify fractional seconds. You can use exponentiation (**), arithmetic expressions, and other numeric operators.

You can set hangtime to 0 (zero), in which case no hang is performed. Setting hangtime to a negative number or a nonnumeric value is the same as setting it to 0.

You can specify multiple hangtime arguments as a comma-separated list, as described below.

Multiple HANG Arguments

You can specify hangtime as a comma-separated list of numeric expressions. Caché suspends execution for the duration of each argument in the order presented. Negative numbers are treated as zero. Therefore, a hangtime of 16,-15 would hang for 16 seconds.

That each hangtime argument is separately executed can affect operations that use the current time in hang calculations, as shown in the following example:

  SET start=$ZHOROLOG
  SET a=$ZHOROLOG+5
  HANG 4,a-$ZHOROLOG
  SET end=$ZHOROLOG
  WRITE !,"elapsed hang=",end-start

In this example, HANG first suspends execution for 4 seconds, then suspends execution for the current time before the hang plus 5 seconds, minus the current time when the second hang argument is parsed. Because HANG executes each argument in turn, the total hang time in this example is (roughly) 5 seconds, rather than the (roughly) 9 seconds one might otherwise expect.

HANG Compared with Timed READ

You can use HANG to pause the routine while the user reads an output message. However, you can handle this type of pause more effectively with a timed READ command. A timed READ allows the user to continue when ready, but a HANG does not because it is set to a fixed duration.

HANG and ^JOBEXAM

The HANG command is used to pause execution of the current process.

The ^JOBEXAM utility can be used to suspend and resume execution of other running processes; it cannot be used to suspend execution of the current process. You cannot use ^JOBEXAM to resume process execution that has been paused by a HANG command. If you use ^JOBEXAM to suspend a process that has been paused by a HANG command, the ^JOBEXAM resume activates the process, which must complete whatever portion of the HANG time that remained when it was suspended.

^JOBEXAM displays State information about all running processes. A process that is paused by a HANG command is listed as State HANGW. A process that is suspended by ^JOBEXAM is listed as State SUSPW.

The ^JOBEXAM utility must be invoked by the Terminal from the %SYS namespace. You must have appropriate privileges to invoke this utility. Utility names are case-sensitive. You can execute ^JOBEXAM as follows:

• DO ^JOBEXAM: displays a listing of all running processes. It provides letter code options to terminate, suspend, or resume a running process.

• DO View^JOBEXAM displays a listing of all running processes. It does not provide options to terminate, suspend, or resume a process.