FORMATTED-TIME converts times, it doesn't provide them. The function SECONDS-PAST-MIDNIGHT returns the seconds past midnight. It isn't documented but it will return fractional seconds, but the best I could get is 3 decimal digits (milliseconds).
I tested this last month on z/OS 2.4 with IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS 6.2.0. The OP wants nanoseconds but I would be happy with a HLL interface that can return /microseconds/. All the COBOL and Language Environment methods are limited to either 2 or 3 digits for fractional seconds. So I use an assembler program (TIME MIC,workarea,LINKAGE=SYSTEM). -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> On Behalf Of Peter Farley Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2024 10:05 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: Nanosecond resolution timestamps for HLL's? > Have you looked at the FORMATTED-TIME function? Thanks Paul, I did look at the FORMATTED-TIME function, but the finest resolution offered by that function is tenths of milliseconds (four fractional decimal digits), not even micro-seconds (which would require six fractional decimal digits). That is not sufficient for accurate application timing values on today's hardware. Two nearly-adjacent calls to that function are quite likely to return the same value. I quote from the latest V6.4 COBOL Language Reference PDF, SC27-8713-03, Chapter 29, page 499: Table 58. The permissible format strings for fractional-seconds time Fractional-seconds time formats -|- Format literals Basic local time -|- hhmmss.ssss Peter ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
