TAL Reference Manual

Language Elements
TAL Reference Manual—526371-001
2-9
Operators
Operators
Operators specify operations—such as arithmetic or assignments—that you want
performed on items. Table 2-9 describes operators.
= Equal sign Used in LITERAL declarations
Used in equivalenced variable declarations
Used in redefinition declarations
=body# Equal sign and hash
mark
Delimit the DEFINE body in a DEFINE
declaration
‘,’ Single quotation
marks
Delimit a comma that is not a delimiter in a
DEFINE parameter
$ Dollar sign Denotes a standard function, such as
$ABS and $DBL
? Question mark Begins a directive line
Table 2-9. Operators (page 1 of 2)
Context Operator Operation
Assignment := Data declaration initialization;
assignment statement, FOR
statement, and assignment
expression
Move statement ‘:=’
'=:'
&
Left-to-right move
Right-to-left move
Concatenated move
Labeled case
statement
. . (two periods) Inclusive range of case labels
Remove indirection @ Accesses the address contained in a
pointer or the address of a non-pointer
item
Repetition * (asterisk) Repetition factor in a repetition
constant list
Template structure (*) Template structure declaration
FIXED(*) parameter
type
(*) Value parameter to be treated as
FIXED(0)
Dereferencing * . (period) Converts value of INT simple variable
to standard word address of another
data item.
Bit-field acess . (period) Accesses a bit-deposit or bit-
extraction field (< n> or < n:n>)
Table 2-8. Delimiters (page2of2)
Symbol
Character
Representation Uses