Control characters for data records

These characters have special meanings in data records:

! (exclamation point)

Serves as the default tab character for the )TB and the )TBA control statements. The file-tailoring tabbing function works either similarly to that of a typewriter tabbing operation, or you can specify in the )TB syntax that tabbing is not to take place if a tab stop is sensed at the same record position as the tab character.

<  (less-than) |  (vertical bar) >  (greater-than)

Specify, respectively, the beginning, middle, and end of a conditional substitution string. For example:

<string1|string2>

where string1 must contain at least one variable name. string2 can be null.

If the first variable in string1 is not null, string1 is substituted in the output record. If the first variable in string1 is null, string2 is substituted in the output record.

Example:

An input skeleton contains these lines:

)SET I = &Z
)SET J = VALUE_OF_J
)SET K = VALUE_OF_K
FIRST CONDITIONAL SUBSTITUTION RESULT: <&J|&K>;
SECOND CONDITIONAL SUBSTITUTION RESULT: <&I|&J>;

After processing, the file-tailoring output file contains:

FIRST CONDITIONAL SUBSTITUTION RESULT: VALUE_OF_J
SECOND CONDITIONAL SUBSTITUTION RESULT: VALUE_OF_J

Two consecutive control characters in the input record result in one control character being placed in the output record:

  !!  yields  !
  <<  yields  <
  ||  yields  |
  >>  yields  >

Note: If any of these characters is overridden by the )DEFAULT control statement, the same rule applies to the new control character. For example, if a )DEFAULT statement substitutes the ^ character for !, then two consecutive ^ characters in the input record will result in one ^ character being placed in the output record.