NET/MASTER Network Control Language (NCL) Reference Manual

Variable Name Syntax

Variables

9–6 106126 Tandem Computers Incorporated

Some examples of invalid complex variables are:

Invalid Complex Variable Reason

&123&456a The first simple-name segment is numeric.

&1ab&c The first simple-name segment begins with a digit.

&a46&99&B The segment 99 is numeric.

Stem Variables A stem variable is a simple or complex variable that is terminated by a period (.). The

general form of a stem variable is the following:

stem.

stem

is either a simple or complex variable. A stem variable can represent a set of

variables, or it can represent a single variable.

You access a subset of the variables through a compound variable name that begins

with the designated stem. A stem variable contains the default value for all the

variables it represents.

For example, the following assignment statement assigns the initial value 0 (zero) to

every compound variable with the stem of &TOTAL.:

&TOTAL. = 0

The following table shows examples of valid stem variables:

Example Comment

&abc. Simple stem variable

&&xy&z. Complex stem variable

&SYS. SYS. is a reserved stem used for system variables

&glbl. Simple stem global variable

&glblabc. Simple stem global variable

&glbl&abc. Complex stem global variable

If you refer to a stem variable that has not been assigned a value, NCL returns a null

value denoted by a pair of empty quotation marks (“”).