TACL Reference Manual

Lexical Elements
HP NonStop TACL Reference Manual—429513-018
2-5
Separator Characters
In the third case, line 20, TACL expands #OUTPUT entirely within the limits of the
square brackets, producing a blank line of output; then TACL invokes
#PMSEARCHLIST.
If you need to output a square bracket from a TACL program, you can use the ~[
combination described in Table 2-1 on page 2-3.
Tilde (~)
The tilde is used in combination with another character:
•
~; simulates an end-of-line character; this character allows you to enter multiple
TACL commands, separated by ~; combinations, in one line of terminal input.
•
~_ represents a space character when #OUTFORMAT is set to PRETTY. This
metacharacter is useful for managing the spacing and alignment of output. For
more information, see the #OUTFORMAT Built-In Variable on page 9-275.
•
TACL replaces the combination of a tilde and a metacharacter with the
metacharacter itself. For example, ~[ becomes [, and ~== becomes ==.
•
TACL replaces the combination of a tilde and a character that is not a
metacharacter with a single question mark. For example, ~A becomes ?
Separator Characters
Most data supplied to TACL must end with a separator character. For example,
keywords, file names, and variable names must end with a standard TACL separator;
numbers and tokens, on the other hand, need not end with a separator character.
Table 2-2
, lists the standard TACL separator characters.
Table 2-2. Separator Characters
Note. You cannot use these characters in the KEYWORD and TOKEN definitions of the
#ARGUMENT built-in function.
Character Name
Space
,Comma
( Left parenthesis
) Right parenthesis
/Slash
; Semicolon
carriage return Physical end of line
~; Logical end of line; allows multiple statements per line.