# Understanding the EXEC Statement

**Understanding the EXEC Statement**

The **EXEC statement** serves as the starting point for each individual step within a job or procedure. Its primary role is to specify the program or procedure—whether cataloged or in-stream that the step will execute. Additionally, it provides instructions to the system on how to handle the execution of that step. A single job can include up to 255 steps

**Syntax**

//STEPNAME EXEC PGM=program-name

* **STEPNAME**: A unique label for the step.
* **PGM**: The name of the program or utility to execute.

**Example**

`//STEP1 EXEC PGM=SORT`

Here, the SORT utility is executed in the first step of the job.