Passing blank numbered parameters to an include file

[D.Cook]

Is it possible?

For example I have an include file with two parameters. The first parameter I wish to leave blank, but I want to pass a value for the second parameter.

The best idea I had was an empty pair of double-quotes. But it becomes one set of double-quotes.

{include.i "" param2}

include.i contents:

&message |{1}|{2}|

results:

|"|param2|

 

[parul]

Have you tried single quotes

{include.i ' ' param2}

 

[sphipp]

Try putting a space between the quotes " ".

 

[D.Cook]

Thanks for the responses.

Single quotes are (strangely) not counted as quotes, so the result is:

|'|'|

And a space between double-quotes is in most cases good enough, but unfortunately I need zero spaces in this case.

| |param2|

This is the result I'm looking for, but I think I'm going to have to find a workaround.

||param2|

 

[Casper]

I don;t know if this is what you are looking for, but this gives the desired result:

MESSAGE '|' + {1} + '|' + {2}.

Casper.

 

[D.Cook]

Actually the first parameter is used as part of a variable name in the include file, like this:

def var var{1}name.

So I need the first parameter value to be empty, resulting in "def var varname.", not "def var var name." which will cause an error.

Obviously it wasn't the best design in the first place, but I'm not keen on changing include files when they are referenced by many programs..

 

[taqvia]

Try out this playing around with special characters:

/*t1.i*/

DEF VAR VAR{1}NAME AS CHAR.
DEF VAR VAR{2}NAME AS CHAR.

MESSAGE "DEF VAR VAR{1}NAME AS CHAR".
MESSAGE "DEF VAR VAR{2}NAME AS CHAR".



/*t1.p*/

{c:\t1.i ~ ~~ "taqvi"}

/*note there is a space between first tilde and the next two consecutive tilde*/

Regards,
Arshad

 

[tamhas]

Thus illustrating one of the evils of include files ...

 

[TomBascom]

I believe that this:

{include.i &1= param2}

does what you want.

 

[D.Cook]

It seems I never got the email notification for these responses back in 2009, what a shame.

{c:\t1.i ~ ~~ "taqvi"}

This works, amazingly!

{include.i &1= param2}

This doesn't work, results in "|param2||". It's a shame, because it would be really nice syntax to use. Playing around with &<number>= gives interesting (weird) results.. but none of which seem useful.

 

[KrisM]

Any reason why you use numbered parameters {1} in stead of named parameters {&param1} ?