Reporting Facility Rules for Coding › Character Set

Character Set

The following characters from a standard keyboard are recognized by the Reporting Facility in commands and parameters:

0—9

Specifies digits

A—Z

Specifies uppercase letters

+

Specifies a plus sign

–

Specifies a minus sign, dash, or hyphen

_

Specifies an underscore

(space)

Specifies a blank, or space

,

Specifies a comma

.

Specifies a period or decimal

>

Specifies greater than

<

Specifies less than

&

Specifies an ampersand

'

Specifies an apostrophe or single quote

;

Specifies a semicolon

*

Specifies an asterisk

/

Specifies a slash

=

Specifies an equal sign

:

Specifies a colon

#

Specifies a hash sign

(

Specifies a left parenthesis

)

Specifies a right parenthesis

@

Specifies an at sign

$

Specifies a dollar sign

These characters have special meanings when used in an arithmetic expression:

+

Specifies addition

/

Specifies division

*

Specifies multiplication

-

Subtraction

The following characters take on special meanings when used in logical expressions:

>

Specifies greater than

<

Specifies less than

=

Specifies equal

Note the following:

• In any expression or parameter that allows the use of an = (equal sign), you can replace the equal sign with its alphabetical equivalent, EQ.
• When using Format 1 of the DEFINE command or a range specification in a logical expression, you can replace the - (dash) with its alphabetic equivalent, THRU or TO.