Special Functions

This section describes the special functions included in QCL which have no direct FORTRAN 77 counterpart.

SUB

The function SUB is used to extract a sub-string and is equivalent to <name>(<i>:<j>).

 
SUB(<string>,<i>,<j>)

The <name>(<i>:<j>) form can be used if the <string> has been assigned a name but the SUB() form must be used if the string is just the intermediate result of the resolution of an expression. The form <name>(<i>:) cannot be used, there must be a second argument. The LEN function or zero can be used if the length is unknown.

A=SUB(3*4,1,6)
B=C(1:LEN(C))
B=C(1:0)

FMT

The function FMT is used to control the format of the results of numerical calculations.

FMT(<string>,<form>)

<string> is a numeric literal or name assigned to a numeric literal; <form> is a format specification string (e.g. F10.3).

         
A=FMT(3*C+4,'I3')

UPC

The function UPC converts the argument string to upper case.

         
qcl>A=UPC('a string')
qcl>. A
 A STRING

OLD, NEW and READ

<channel>=OLD(<filename>)

<channel>=NEW(<filename>) 

<line>=READ(<channel>) 

         
LINE=READ(5)

SYMBOL

SYMBOL replaces the argument by the symbol assigned to the argument rather then the string assigned to the argument. This is useful if a symbol is assigned to another symbol which is required on the left hand side of an assignment statement.

qcl>PARAMETER='JOKE'
qcl>SYMBOL(PARAMETER)='Hello and welcome'

The string "Hello and welcome" is now assigned to JOKE, not PARAMETER.

INSA, INSB, DEL and REP

Four string editing functions have been included in QCL.

INSA(<str1>,<str2>,<str3>)

Insert <str1> into <str2> after <str3>.

INSB(<str1>,<str2>,<str3>)

Insert <str1> into <str2> before <str3>.

         
REP(<str1>,<str2>,<str3>)

Replace <str1> by <str2> in <str3>.

         
DEL(<str1>,<str2>)

Delete <str1> from <str2>.

Note that the order of arguments is derived from the natural description of the functions.