Category: Metacharacters

(Escape) Causes the following character to be treated literally, or as a hex code in a character string; indicates continuation of a command on the subsequent line. Syntax #1 Causes the character that follows it in a string to be treated literally. char Parameters char any single character that is to be treated literally in…
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% ( Wildcard) Used with the LIKE operator to construct patterns for matching. Comments Used with the LIKE operator in logic expressions, the % wildcard matches zero or any number of subsequent characters when the pattern on the right is compared to expression1. Example “_ ob%” Matches any character string whose second and third letters…
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(Program template delimiters) << your code >> Quickly marks a large block of code that you want to prevent from running or that you want to be generated by the GENERATE command by putting the delimiters at the start and end of an output section in a template program. Syntax Place a two less than…
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< > (Macro name delimiters) Marks the start and end of a macro name in an application program. Syntax Parameters name The name to be assigned to a global macro, or a digit from 0 to 9 referring to one of the local macros belonging to the current macro program. Comments A macro is a…
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% (Comment) Marks the start of a comment in an application program. Syntax [ZIMcommand] % comment Parameters ZIMcommand Any portion of a command that appears on one line in an application program. comment Any string of characters, normally a few words explaining either ZIMcommand or an entire section of the program. The command parser ignores…
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Matches all subsequent characters in a value. Syntax expression1 = expression2 ? Parameters expression1 A character string, or a variable or form field that evaluates to a character string. expression2 A character string, or a variable or form field that evaluates to a character string. Comments Used with the equals sign in logic expressions, the…
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$ (Template line join) In a template program, indicates that the next line is to be joined to the current line at the output destination. Syntax linestart «$linecontinue » where linestart any portion, from the beginning, of an output line linecontinue the remaining portion(s) of the same output line Comments In a template program, the…
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Marks a call to a macro in an application program. Syntax #<macroname> where macroname The name of a global or local macro. Return Value A macro call returns the current value of the macro or the null string (”). Comments This command calls a particular macro in an application program. A macro is a dynamically…
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Used with the LIKE operator to construct patterns for matching. Comments Used with the LIKE operator in logic expressions, the _ wildcard matches any single character when the pattern on the right is compared to expression. Example “_ob%” Matches any character string whose second and third letters are ob, followed by zero or more characters…
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