Rexx - Variables
In Rexx, all variables are bound with the ‘=’ statement. Variable names are sometimes referred to as symbols. They may be composed of Letters, Digits, and Characters such as ‘. ! ? _’. A variable name you create must not begin with a digit or a period. A simple variable name does not include a period. A variable name that includes a period is called a compound variable and represents an array or table.
The following are the basic types of variables in Rexx which were also explained in the previous chapter −
Integers − This is used to represent an integer or a float. An example for this is 10.
Big integers − This represents a large integer value.
Decimal − A decimal value is a string of numerics that contains a decimal point but no exponent identifier.
Float − A float value is a string that represents a number in the scientific notation.
String − A series of characters defines a string in Rexx.
Different Types of Variable Functions
In this section, we will discuss regarding the various functions a variable can perform.
Variable Declarations
The general syntax of defining a variable is shown as follows −
var-name = var-value
where
The following program is an example of the variable declaration −
Example
/* Main program */
X = 40
Y = 50
Result = X + Y
say Result
In the above example, we have 2 variables, one is X which is bound to the value 40 and the next is Y which is bound to the value of 50. Another variable called Result is bound to the addition of X and Y.
The output of the above program will be as follows −
90
Naming Variables
Variable names are sometimes referred to as symbols. They may be composed of Letters, Digits, and Characters such as ‘. ! ? _’ . A variable name you create must not begin with a digit or period.
If a variable has not yet been assigned a value, it is referred to as uninitialized. The value of an uninitialized variable is the name of the variable itself in uppercase letters.
An example of an unassigned variable is as follows −
Example
/* Main program */
unassignedvalue
say unassignedvalue
If you run the above program you will get the following output −
UNASSIGNEDVALUE
sh: UNASSIGNEDVALUE: command not found
2 *-* unassignedvalue
>>> "UNASSIGNEDVALUE"
+++ "RC(127)"
Variables can be assigned values more than once. The below program shows how the value of X can be assigned a value multiple times.
Example
/* Main program */
X = 40
X = 50
say X
The output of the above program will be as follows −
50
Printing Variables
The values of variables are printed using the say command. Following is an example of printing a variety number of variables.
Example
/* Main program */
X = 40
/* Display an Integer */
say X
Y = 50.5
/* Display a Float */
say Y
Z = "hello"
/* Display a string */
say Z
The output of the above program will be as follows −
40
50.5
hello
