Continuing a literal string without adding a space

If you need to continue an instruction to a second or more lines but do not want REXX to add spaces when the line appears on the screen, use the concatenation operand (two single OR bars, ||).

SAY 'This is an extended literal string that is bro'||,
    'ken in an awkward place.'

This example appears on the screen as one line without adding a space within the word "broken".

    This is an extended literal string that is broken in an awkward place.

Also note that the following two instructions are identical and yield the same result when displayed on the screen:

SAY 'This is' ||,
    'a string.'

is functionally identical to:

SAY 'This is' || 'a string.'

These examples appear on the screen as:

    This isa string.

In the first example, the concatenation operator at the end of line 1 causes the deletion of any spaces when the two lines are concatenated for display. In the second example, the concatenation operator also concatenates the two strings without space when the line is displayed.