Tutorial › A Program That Greets You by User ID › Explanation › KEY Command

KEY Command

The KEY command types a string of characters on your screen just as it did inthe program that types “Hello” (as described inA Program That Says Hello inthis chapter). But the following KEY statements use variables that represent your user ID and the current date and time.

KEY 'Hello, &USERID'
KEY 'Today is &ZDATE'
KEY 'The time is &ZTIME'

&USERID, &ZDATE, and &ZTIME are variable names. ACL/E treats a group of characters preceded by an ampersand (&) and followed by a blank or other delimiter as a variable name. When you execute this program, ACL/E replaces the &ZDATE and &ZTIME with the current date and time. For the variable&USERID, ACL/E substitutes the user ID you entered to sign on to CA TPX.

The variables used in this program are examples of predefined variables available in ACL/E. You also can define your own variables. For more information about variables, see the chapter Defining and Manipulating Variables.