NET/MASTER Network Control Language (NCL) Reference Manual

Variable Lists Beginning With VARS
Verb Syntax and Variable Access Methods
11–16 106126 Tandem Computers Incorporated
Skipping Characters In the previous discussion on skipping words, the default for the PARSE option for the
NCL verbs EMSREAD, INTREAD, LOGREAD, and MSGREAD is YES. Character
skipping can be performed if you use the PARSE=NO option in the preceding verbs.
Wherever an asterisk is used as the skip specifier and PARSE=NO, the number in
parentheses after the asterisk refers to the number of characters to be skipped.
Note For a technique you can use to skip blanks and null characters, see the subsection “Handling Blanks and
Nulls” later in this section.
Specifying Variables Using
an Expression
You can specify variables with an expression in a VARS list. This VARS list option
affects how variable names are generated. Here is the component of the VARS list that
you use to specify variables with an expression:
( expression )
The expression, when evaluated during the execution of an NCL process, must result
in a string containing a sequence of symbols. Each symbol must be separated by a
blank. The symbols in the string are used to create individual variable specifications.
Each symbol is treated as if it is a variable name.
The names created in this way must be simple or compound names (not complex).
They cannot include the leading ampersand (&). They cannot be suffixed with a range
specification or a length specification. It is not possible to provide a skip specification
as the result of expression .
Here are some examples:
What You Type Meaning
INTREAD VARS=((A B C D)) Generates the following variables at run time: &A,
&B, &C, and &D. (This expression is constant.)
MSGREAD VARS (GET_NAMES()) The variables generated depend on the result
returned from the function GET_NAMES. (An
example is shown later. This expression is a function
call.)