A message that is used with the MLSTRANSLATE statement must not contain parameters.

The output message array identifier indicates the output message array from which the translated message is to be obtained.

The input language indicates the language from which the message is being translated. If no input language is specified, the language of the task is used as the input language. If the input message does not exist in the task language, the system language is used as the input language. If the input message is still not found, an error is returned. The input language must not have a trailing period.

The output language indicates the language into which the message is to be translated. The output language must not have a trailing period.

The input message contains the text to be translated. For the translation to be successful, the input message must be the same as the message contained in the output message array, including blanks. However, the translation is not case-sensitive.

The result message number is an integer or real variable that is assigned the message array index corresponding to the message looked up. This value can be used to acquire text in the language understood by the program through a MESSAGESEARCHER call.

The result message can be either a pointer/length pair of variables or a string variable, providing flexibility for the destination of the translated message.

The result pointer is a call-by-value EBCDIC pointer that points to where the translated message is to be stored. An EBCDIC null character (48"00") is placed after the last character of the message. The null character is not included in the returned message length.

The result length is an integer or real variable that is assigned the length of the returned output message, not counting the null character that is placed at the end.

The MLSTRANSLATE statement can be used only with output message arrays that have been declared with a CCSVERSION, a DECIMALPOINTIS, or a THOUSANDSEPARATORIS output message parameter.