TACL Reference Manual

Built-In Functions and Variables
HP NonStop TACL Reference Manual—429513-018
9-22
#ARGUMENT Built-In Function
TACL is using PLAIN format, TACL does not recognize square brackets as
metacharacters.
The identity of the alternative being tested can have an effect on the result of
the VALUE option. For example, if there is a variable FN and a file named FN,
the VALUE option would return different results depending on which type of
argument is expected.
alternative
can be any of these:
ASSIGN [ / SYNTAX / ]
matches an existing logical-unit name. The name must be terminated by a
standard TACL separator. The SYNTAX option specifies that any logical-unit
name is acceptable as long as it is formatted correctly.
ATTRIBUTENAME
matches a valid DEFINE attribute name as described in Section 5, Statements
and Programs. The name must be terminated by a standard TACL separator.
ATTRIBUTEVALUE
matches a valid DEFINE attribute value as described in Section 5, Statements
and Programs. The name must be terminated by a standard TACL separator.
CHARACTERS / char-option [ , char-option ] ... /
matches a contiguous sequence of characters starting at an arbitrary position
in the argument sequence.
char-option is either of these:
START num
specifies the start of the sequence of characters, in the range -1 to
+32767. -1 specifies the current position. Positive numbers specify
absolute character positions: Zero specifies the first character of the
argument set (the space following the routine name); higher numbers
specify character positions to the right of that. If you omit this option, the
starting position defaults to the current position.
WIDTH num
specifies the number of characters to process. If you omit this option, it
defaults to one. If the specified number of characters are found, the current
position moves to the point just beyond the last character processed. If the
portion of the argument beyond the starting point contains fewer characters
than specified by WIDTH, an error occurs.