Variable Definition

The options -ivar, lvar, -rvar, -svar exist to enable program variables to be defined from the operating system command line. (-bvar, -cvar, -fvar are alternative names of the options.)

The different options define variables of different data types. i.e.:

-bvar Logical (boolean) variable

-cvar Character string variable

-fvar Floating point real variable

-ivar Integer variable

-lvar Logical (boolean) variable

-rvar Floating point real variable

-svar Character string variable

(+bvar, -BVAR, +BVAR are equivalent to -bvar, as are the corresponding variations for the other options.) Immediately following the option is the name and the value of the variable separated by an equals sign. The first blank ends the variable definition (It is recommended to always use names that cannot be mistaken for other entry e.g. start every variable name with a hash (#).) At present lines of text cannot be defined as values for variables from the command-line.

Variable definition makes most sense when used within a macro (See Section 8.1, Page ).

Multiple variable definitions may be used to define a number of different variables. If the same variable name is used more than once the later versions will over-write the previous versions.

(-sym, -SYM, +sym, +SYMBOL, and +SYM was the manner in which to define program ``symbols'' before V10.0. These may still be used and defined a variable of data type ``unknown'', however, it is recommended to replace these with the new options which allow the data type to be defined. Internally, these are stored as strings, and can usually be converted to the required integer, logical, real, or character string value, but this may cause problems.)