NET/MASTER Network Control Language (NCL) Reference Manual

The Components of a Verb
Verb Syntax and Variable Access Methods
11–2 106126 Tandem Computers Incorporated
The following examples illustrate the variation in syntax—in particular, the inclusion
or omission of the equal sign between a keyword and a qualifier:
ASSIGN VARS=&A* GENERIC
CMDLINE Hi _there
DELAY 5
FILE CLOSE ID ALL
FILE DEL
FILE GET OPT=KLT MDO=&MSG. HEADER=YES
FILE OPEN ID &MYFILE FORMAT=MAPPED
FILE SET KEY=&1
INTCMD START MYPROC
LOCK TYPE TEST PNAME &DAY MNAME &TIME
LOGREAD VARS=(&A*,&B*(1,10)) RANGE=(5,8) PARSE=YES
LOGREAD VARS(&A(20,&B(20)) SEGMENT=152 PARSE=NO
PAUSE ARGS
PAUSE ARGS RANGE(1,99)
PAUSE VARS=(&A,&B,&C)
VARTABLE RESET ID MYTABLE
WRITE DATA &SYS.OS.SPECIFIC
Keywords
The keyword to a verb must be constant and must be known during compilation. The
keyword cannot result from variable substitution or expression evaluation. Constant
expressions such as (KEY||LEN) are invalid when used as keywords.
A keyword is treated as a reserved word in the context of a verb. As with other
keywords, it is not necessarily a reserved word in the context of other statements.
Since a keyword is treated as a reserved word in a verb, if you want to use the
keyword as part or all of a qualifier, you must enclose it in quotes or parentheses. The
following examples enclose keywords in quotes and parentheses:
LOCK TYPE=TEST PNAME="PNAME" MNAME=(MNAME)
LOCK TYPE=TEST PNAME=(PNAME) MNAME="MNAME"
VARTABLE RESET ID "ID"
VARTABLE RESET ID (ID)
FILE OPEN ID (OPEN) KEY "KEY"
FILE OPEN ID "OPEN" KEY (KEY)