NET/MASTER Network Control Language (NCL) Reference Manual

4 Built-in Functions
106126 Tandem Computers Incorporated 4–1
Built-in functions provide information that would otherwise require extensive coding
to acquire.
This section describes all built-in functions available in NCL, including:
A brief overview of the built-in function.
A diagram showing the syntax of the built-in function.
Descriptions of each operand in the built-in function.
Considerations that affect the usage of the built-in function.
A list of related built-in functions, verbs, or other NCL statements.
At least one example of the use of the statement. Null strings are indicated in
examples by two single quote characters (‘‘). The purpose of the examples is to
show the correct method of coding the built-in function. The first example for the
first built-in function, A2E, is a complete procedure and shows a variable assigned
to the function. Thereafter, most examples show the built-in function preceded by
the SAY core statement, so that they can be easily demonstrated if coded into an
NCL procedure.
For help in understanding syntax notation, see “Notation Conventions” at the
beginning of this manual.
Summary of Built-in
Functions
Table 4-1 contains a description of each built-in function discussed in this section.
Table 4-1. List of Built-in Functions (Page 1 of 3)
Built-in Function Description
A2E Translates an input string from ASCII to EBCDIC.
ABBREV Tests a string for a valid abbreviation.
ABS Returns the absolute value of a number.
B2C Converts a string of binary digits to eight-bit byte characters.
BITAND Performs a logical AND operation on two strings.
BITOR Performs a logical OR operation on two strings.
BITXOR Performs a logical exclusive OR (XOR) operation on two strings.
BOOLEXPR Analyzes or evaluates a complex Boolean expression.
C2B Converts a string to its binary equivalent.
C2D Converts a character string to a decimal number.
C2X Converts a character string to its hexadecimal equivalent.
CENTER Centers text within a string; it can be spelled as CENTRE.
COMPARE Compares two strings and returns the numerical position of the first differing
character.