AOF Rule Tools › AOF Variables › Dynamic Variables

Dynamic Variables

Dynamic variables are user-defined variables that are created each time a rule section executes. The dynamic variable data is available only when a rule section is executing. You use dynamic variables generally as a reference in the logic of an AOF rule section.

For example, consider the following rule logic:

)MSG $HASP094
)PROC
/************************************************************/
/* Rule Purpose :     Hilite I/O Error messages for Line 50 */
/* $HASP094 I/O LNExx SNA ,17,0000,087D0001,JOB NAME        */
/************************************************************/
LINE = WORD(MSG.TEXT,3)              /* Extract line no.    */
if LINE < > 'LNE50' then             /* Is this LNE50?      */
  return
MSG.DESC = OPSBITS('IMEDACTN')       /* Hilite if it is     */

The variable LINE is an example of a dynamic variable and is only available as each $HASP094 message is processed by this MSG rule.

Review the following additional facts about dynamic variables:

• Simple dynamic variables are used in the )PROC or )TERM sections of a rule but not in the )INIT section. Compound dynamic variables are used in all rule sections.
• The name of a dynamic variable can be up to 256 characters in length.
• The value assigned to a dynamic variable can be up to 32,000 bytes in length.
• A dynamic variable can be a compound symbol, such as JOB.COUNT.

  Note: It cannot begin with a reserved stem used by the environmental variables for that particular event type (for example, MSG.xxx, CMD.xxx, EOM.xxx).

• The value of an uninitialized dynamic variable (a variable that has not yet been assigned a value) is the variable name itself.
• The following three special variables in standard REXX are always dynamic variables in AOF rules:
  • RC
  • RESULT
  • SIGL