NCL Statement Types and Syntax › Format of NCL Statements › Variable Substitution

Variable Substitution

Statements can contain variables that have contents that are resolved through a substitution process at the time the statement is executed. The use of variables within the statement syntax effectively changes the text of the statement by substituting the current value of the variables imbedded in the statement text each time the statement is executed.

During the substitution process, a restriction of a maximum word size of 256 characters exists. Additionally, the total size of a statement after substitution has been completed is 12288 characters.

Example: Variable Substitution

The length of the following coded statement is 28 characters, including blanks between the words:

&IF &A = &B &THEN &GOTO .END

If it were used in the following manner:

&A = ABCDEFG
&B = ABCDEFG
&IF &A = &B &THEN &GOTO .END

then, after the substitution process performed at the time the statement is executed, the statement would read as follows and be 38 characters long:

&IF ABCDEFG = ABCDEFG &THEN &GOTO .END

Variable substitution in statements let you code a standard logic routine that processes different information.