NET/MASTER Network Control Language (NCL) Reference Manual

11 Verb Syntax and Variable
Access Methods
106126 Tandem Computers Incorporated 11–1
This section covers general verb syntax and how to use verbs to access variables. It
includes the following topics:
The components of a verb statement: verb name, keywords (operands), equal sign
(=), and qualifiers
The different types of qualifiers to a verb
The syntax and the function of a number of common keywords used by verbs:
VARS, RANGE, GENERIC, and ARGS
How to use the ASSIGN verb to create and update multiple variables
How to use the DROP verb to explicitly delete multiple variables
How to use the PARSE and SEGMENT keywords and the PARSE verb to split
strings and place the contents into variables
For help in understanding syntax notation, see “Notation Conventions” at the
beginning of this manual.
The Components of a
Verb
If an NCL statement begins with a verb name, it is called a verb statement. All verb
statements, hereafter called simply verbs, have the following syntax:
verb [ [ operand ] … ]
This shows that a verb can consist of several different parts: a verb name and its
operands. It shows that verbs can be followed by more than one operand.
Operands An operand modifies the action taken by the verb. All operands follow the syntax:
keyword [ [ = ] qualifier ]
keyword
is a word that modifies the action of the verb to the extent specified by
qualifier , if specified.