Syntactically, it would be a category of Expression term. So in the manual, it would probably be described as a new section 1.11.7 following the new array terms. Syntactically, it is a prefix '>' or '<' followed by a either a simple variable symbol or a stem variable symbol (no compound). The effect it to create a VariableReference object instance that holds a reference to the specified variable.
On Fri, Feb 1, 2019 at 3:36 PM Erich Steinböck <erich.steinbo...@gmail.com> wrote: > I'm working on updating rexxref and rexxp for Variable References and need > to dig deeper: syntactically, what is a Variable Reference? > > We have symbols, terms (plain, message, and array terms) and expressions. > How do Variable References fit in? > > I'm struggling, because > > >a~name wont work, but > Why do you say this won't work? The ">a" creates a variable reference object. Variable references have a NAME method, so that will display "A". > v = >a; v~name will. > x = >a~name will work too. > > parse var >a v1 v2 won't work, but > v = >a; parse var v v1 v2 will > A variable reference term is not a syntactic standin for a variable, so "parse var >a" because the instruction expects a variable. You would need to use parse value >a with v1 v2 The second case works because the parse instruction is syntactically value. The variable V evaluates to the variable reference instance. When the parse instruction asks the variablereference object for its string value to parse, it evaluates the variable it refers to and returns its string value. Rick > _______________________________________________ > Oorexx-devel mailing list > Oorexx-devel@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/oorexx-devel >
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