Alternative formats for the prototype statement

The prototype statement can be specified in one of the following three ways:

The normal way, with all the symbolic parameters preceding any remarks
An alternative way, allowing remarks for each parameter
A combination of the first two ways

The continuation rules for macro instructions are different from those for machine or assembler instruction statements. This difference is important for those who write macros that override a machine/assembler mnemonic.

The following examples show the normal statement format (&NAME1), the alternative statement format (&NAME2), and a combination of both statement formats (&NAME3):

       Opera-
Name   tion   Operand                       Comment                 Cont.

&NAME1 OP1    &OPERAND1,&OPERAND2,&OPERAND3 This is the normal        X
                                            statement format

&NAME2 OP2    &OPERAND1,                    This is the alter-        X
              &OPERAND2                     native statement format

&NAME3 OP3    &OPERAND1,                    This is a combination     X
              &OPERAND2,&OPERAND3,          of both                   X
              &OPERAND4

Notes:

Any number of continuation lines is allowed. However, each continuation line must be indicated by a non-space character in the column after the end column on the preceding line.
For each continuation line, the operand field entries (symbolic parameters) must begin in the continue column; otherwise, the whole line and any lines that follow are considered to contain remarks.
No error diagnostic message is issued to indicate that operands are treated as remarks in this situation. However, the FLAG(CONT) assembler option can be specified so that the assembler issues warning messages if it suspects an error in a continuation line.
The standard value for the continue column is 16 and the standard value for the end column is 71.
A comma is required after each parameter except the last. If you code excess commas between parameters, they are considered null positional parameters. No error diagnostic message is issued.
One or more spaces is required between the operand and the remarks.
If the DBCS assembler option is specified, the continuation features outlined in Continuation of double-byte data apply to continuation in the macro language. Extended continuation is useful if a macro keyword parameter contains double-byte data.