It would be the same as the second case (x"c2x(Fred)"), less
conversions.  The value of the Fred would be at the value stored in the
output buffer at the specified location.  Blanks would be honored, since
the parser would not look at the data anymore than it looks at the data
in 1-*.  

-----Original Message-----
From: CMSTSO Pipelines Discussion List
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Rich Greenberg
Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 4:40 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [CMS-PIPELINES] Suggestion: New keyword in SPECS

On: Tue, May 19, 2009 at 02:47:25PM -0400,SPITZ, HOBART CTR DFAS Wrote:

} The following assumes that \ can never occur in the data stored in
} variable Fred.
}
}       "pipe .... | specs \"Fred"\ 1 ... | ..."
}
} The canonical way to handle data in a REXX variable in a delimiter
} independent manner is:
}
}       "pipe .... | specs x"c2x(Fred)" 1 ... | ..."

[...]

} I propose the following equivalent:
}
}       "pipe .... | specs var Fred 1 ... | ..."
}
} That, in turn, suggests the following:
}
}       "pipe .... | specs 1-10 var Fred ... | ...",
}
} which would store the first ten chars of the record in the variable
} Fred.

Hobart, What happens here if "fred" contains one or more imbedded
blanks?

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