Processing Character Data
Developing TACL Programs
2–16 107365 Tandem Computers Incorporated
Additional Data
Manipulation Capabilities
Use the built-in functions and commands in Table 2-3 to perform other data
manipulation tasks. A dash indicates that there is no equivalent function or command.
Table 2-3. Data Manipulation Functions
Function Command Description
#APPEND — Adds a line of text to a variable level.
#APPENDV — Appends a string or the contents of a variable level to the
end of another variable level.
#COMPAREV _COMPAREV Compares one string or variable level with another.
— COPYVAR Copies the contents of one variable level to another.
#EMPTY — Determines whether specified text is empty.
#EMPTYV — Determines whether a variable level or quoted text is
empty.
#EXTRACT — Obtains the first line of a variable level.
#EXTRACTV — Moves the first line of a variable level to another variable
level.
— FILETOVAR Copies data from a file to the end of a variable level.
— JOIN Converts a multiple-line variable level into a single-line
variable level with spaces in place of end-of-line indicators.
— _LONGEST Returns the longest element in a variable containing a
space-separated list.
#SET SET VARIABLE Changes the entire contents of a variable level.
#SETMANY — Distributes the members of a space-separated list into
individual variable levels.
#SETV — Copies a string or variable level into another variable level.
— VARTOFILE Copies data from a variable level to a file.
To read data into a variable from a sequential file, you can use either FILETOVAR or
#SET. The following statements move the contents of
filename
into
variable
:
FILETOVAR
filename variable
or
#SET /IN
filename
/
variable
The #SET command is much faster and is easier to debug: FILETOVAR is
implemented as a looping macro; #SET uses TAL code. The maximum record length
for records in files copied by FILETOVAR is 239 characters. When using #SET, make
sure #INFORMAT is set to PLAIN.
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