If you need to include a dialog variable within your panel source that will be substituted at run time, the output panel must be created to contain an "&variable" string. An example would be a reference to an ISPF variable such as &ZDATE.

The conversion utility always tries to substitute each "&variable" found at conversion time with the available entity definitions. If the conversion utility can't find an entity definition, it issues a warning message, and then passes the original "&variable" into the output panel.

To avoid the warning message, you can use the predefined entity "&amp". You can code the variable in the tag source as "&amp;variable" to make "&variable" appear in the panel. Alternatively, you could provide an entity definition for the variable, such as <!ENTITY variable "&variable">.

You should use caution when designing panels that contain runtime substitution variables. The regular panel formatting process might not leave sufficient space in the panel text line for the variable value to be inserted. For example, a variable name of "&date" that requires 10 positions (YYYY/MM/DD) should be coded as "&date(10);".