CA-GSS Statements and Commands › GSS Extended Functions › IO Functions › Number, String, and Variable Functions › System Information Functions › Notation Conventions

Notation Conventions

Positional Operands

The operands for the extended functions have reserved positions. If you omit an optional operand, you must indicate its position with a comma.

Literal Strings

Values shown in capital letters are literal strings. When you code a literal string in REXX, you should always enclose it in single (') or double quotation marks ("). This is because REXX will always assume an "unquoted" literal string to be a variable name and will perform substitution. Note that if no variable of that name has been used, the variable's uninitialized value is its name.

Example

The syntax for the EXAMPLE() function might be as follows:

EXAMPLE({OPEN},handle[,{F|FB}[,lrecl][,blksize])
     {CLOSE}
     {START}
     {STOP}

If you choose to omit the F | FB and lrecl operands, but include blksize, you could enter the function in the following way:

EXAMPLE('OPEN',myhandle,,,3120)

Notice that OPEN, a literal string, is enclosed in single quotes, while myhandle, a variable, is not. The numeric value, 3120, although technically a literal, is not a valid REXX name and there is no ambiguity in omitting the quotes.