NET/MASTER Network Control Language (NCL) Reference Manual

Keywords With a Qualifier
Verb Syntax and Variable Access Methods
11–8 106126 Tandem Computers Incorporated
Variable Specification
Many verbs can contain variable specifications. If the qualifier to a keyword can be a
variable, it can be referred to by any type of variable name: simple, complex, stem,
compound, or nested. The single exception to this is a variable specification after the
MDO keyword in which the variable must be a stem or compound variable.
As with all variables, a variable that is a qualifier to a verb must always be introduced
by an ampersand (&). Variables are discussed in Section 9, “Variables.”
Here is the syntax in which the qualifier can be any variable name:
keyword [ = ] & variable
Here are some examples:
ASSIGN VARS (&A,&&B) FROM VARS=(&X,&Y)
INTREAD VARS = (&A, &&B, &&C(&N+5,&N+8))
INTREAD TYPE=&TYPE
LOCK VARS=&LOCK TYPE=EXCL PNAME=ABC
LOCK VARS = &PNAME.MNAME TYPE = EXCL PNAME = ABC
LOCK VARS &ZZZ. TYPE EXCL PNAME ABC
PAUSE VARS=(&DETAILS.SURNAME) TEXT Enter surname
WRITE DATA &SYS.ERROR.CONDITION
Variables are used extensively in VARS lists. VARS lists are discussed later in this
section in “Variable Lists Beginning With VARS.”
Qualifier is a List A list consists of a sequence of single items. If the list contains a single item, the syntax
is:
keyword [ = ] item
If the list contains multiple items, the syntax is:
keyword [ = ] ( item [ , item ] … )
You must enclose the list in parentheses if there is more than one item in the list. In
addition, you must separate items with a comma (,). Blanks surrounding a comma are
optional.
Two types of lists that contain a variable number of items are:
Variable lists. This type of list is used by many verbs. It is introduced with the
VARS keyword. VARS lists are discussed later in this section in “Variable Lists
Beginning With VARS.”
Fields lists. This type of list is used by certain VARTABLE verbs. It is introduced
with the FIELDS keyword.