You said, "It isn't boolean; everything in REXX is a character string."
I agree that "it's all strings", but not that "everything in REXX is a
*character* string."
Try the following:
ARG DEBUG
IF ABBREV(DEBUG,D,1) THEN ,
TRACE I
SIGNAL ON SYNTAX NAME ERROR0
TRUE = 1
SAY 'TRUE NUMERIC = 'TRUE
SAY 'DATATYPE TRUE = 'DATATYPE(TRUE)
IF ¬TRUE THEN SAY 'NOT TRUE NUMERIC'
IF TRUE THEN SAY 'YES, TRUE NUMERIC'
ERROR0:
SIGNAL ON SYNTAX NAME ERROR1
TRUE = '1'
SAY 'TRUE CHARACTER = 'TRUE
SAY 'DATATYPE TRUE = 'DATATYPE(TRUE)
IF ¬TRUE THEN SAY 'NOT TRUE CHARACTER'
IF TRUE THEN SAY 'YES, TRUE CHARACTER'
ERROR1:
SIGNAL ON SYNTAX NAME ERROR2
TRUE = '31'X
SAY 'TRUE HEXADECIMAL = 'TRUE
SAY 'DATATYPE TRUE = 'DATATYPE(TRUE)
IF ¬TRUE THEN SAY 'NOT TRUE HEXADECIMAL'
IF TRUE THEN SAY 'YES, TRUE HEXADECIMAL'
TRUE = '00110001'B
SAY 'TRUE BINARY HEX = 'TRUE
SAY 'DATATYPE TRUE = 'DATATYPE(TRUE)
IF ¬TRUE THEN SAY 'NOT TRUE BINARY HEX'
IF TRUE THEN SAY 'YES, TRUE BINARY HEX'
TRUE = '00000001'B
SAY 'TRUE BINARY ONLY = 'TRUE
SAY 'DATATYPE TRUE = 'DATATYPE(TRUE)
IF ¬TRUE THEN SAY 'NOT TRUE BINARY ONLY'
IF TRUE THEN SAY 'YES, TRUE BINARY ONLY'
ERROR2:
SIGNAL ON SYNTAX NAME ERROR3
TRUE = '1'B
SAY 'TRUE BINARY BIT = 'TRUE
SAY 'DATATYPE TRUE = 'DATATYPE(TRUE)
IF ¬TRUE THEN SAY 'NOT TRUE BINARY BIT'
IF TRUE THEN SAY 'YES, TRUE BINARY BIT'
ERROR3:
EXIT 0
... which produces output:
TRUE NUMERIC = 1
DATATYPE TRUE = NUM
YES, TRUE NUMERIC
TRUE CHARACTER = 1
DATATYPE TRUE = NUM
YES, TRUE CHARACTER
TRUE HEXADECIMAL = 1
DATATYPE TRUE = NUM
YES, TRUE HEXADECIMAL
TRUE BINARY HEX = 1
DATATYPE TRUE = NUM
YES, TRUE BINARY HEX
TRUE BINARY ONLY = ? <--
DATATYPE TRUE = CHAR <--
TRUE BINARY BIT = ? <--
DATATYPE TRUE = CHAR <--
PRESS ANY KEY TO CONTINUE.
On 08/09/2020 02:44, Seymour J Metz wrote:
> No. REXX has built in functions to test the value of a string, but it's all
> strings
>
> foo =01
> bar = '01'
> baz = 0||1
>
> all yield the same value,
>
> shmuel@linux-gn5l:~> rexxtry
> /usr/local/bin/rexxtry lets you interactively try REXX statements.
> Each string is executed when you hit Enter.
> Enter 'call tell' for a description of the features.
> Go on - try a few... Enter 'exit' to end.
> say datatype(01)
> NUM
> .................................... /usr/local/bin/rexxtry on LINUX
> say datatype('01')
> NUM
> .................................... /usr/local/bin/rexxtry on LINUX
> say datatype(0||1)
> NUM
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz
> http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> on behalf of
> CM Poncelet <ponce...@bcs.org.uk>
> Sent: Monday, September 7, 2020 9:30 PM
> To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
> Subject: Re: REXX true/false (was Constant Identifiers)
>
> No, REXX has both DATATYPE CHAR and NUM strings.
>
> Meanwhile C2D, D2X etc. would be useless if REXX could not then process
> binary data - as in IPCS REXX:
> ADDRESS IPCS
> PSA_ADDRESS = '00000000'
> "EVALUATE" PSA_ADDRESS||. ,
> "POSITION("X2D(224)") LENGTH(4) REXX(STORAGE(OLD_ASCB_ADDRESS))"
> "EVALUATE" OLD_ASCB_ADDRESS||. ,
> "POSITION("X2D(6C)") LENGTH(4) REXX(STORAGE(OLD_ASXB_ADDRESS))"
> "EVALUATE" OLD_ASXB_ADDRESS||. ,
> "POSITION("X2D(4)") LENGTH(4) REXX(STORAGE(TCB_CHAIN_START_ADDRESS))"
> "EVALUATE" OLD_ASXB_ADDRESS||. ,
> "POSITION("X2D(8)") LENGTH(4) REXX(STORAGE(TCB_CHAIN_STOP_ADDRESS))"
> <etc.>
>
> My mistake was to think that setting a variable to a quoted value, in
> REXX, made that variable a type CHAR. But REXX considers it to be NUM if
> it contains only numerics, regardless of whether its set value was
> quoted or not. The oddity is that '00000001'b etc. has DATATYPE CHAR
> instead of NUM in REXX. This would not happen in Fortran (type logical)
> or PL/I (DCL bit) or even COBOL (level-77 or -88, whatever it is).
>
>
>
> On 07/09/2020 06:52, Seymour J Metz wrote:
>> It isn't boolean; everything in REXX is a character string.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz
>> http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3
>>
>>
>> ________________________________________
>> From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> on behalf of
>> CM Poncelet <ponce...@bcs.org.uk>
>> Sent: Monday, September 7, 2020 1:30 AM
>> To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
>> Subject: Re: REXX true/false (was Constant Identifiers)
>>
>> "ELSE IF ¬TRUE THEN <whatever else>" was just to demonstrate that "TRUE" is
>> Boolean.
>>
>>
>>
>> On 07/09/2020 05:24, Seymour J Metz wrote:
>>> First, that code is highly obfuscated. Why would you ever want to write "IF
>>> foo & TRUE" instead of "IF foo"?
>>>
>>> Second, "ELSE IF ¬TRUE THEN foo" is dead code.
>>>
>>> Third, there are no booleans in REXX; the only data type is character
>>> string.
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz
>>> http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3
>>>
>>>
>>> ________________________________________
>>> From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> on behalf of
>>> CM Poncelet <ponce...@bcs.org.uk>
>>> Sent: Sunday, September 6, 2020 9:31 PM
>>> To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
>>> Subject: Re: REXX true/false (was Constant Identifiers)
>>>
>>> In the following example,
>>> TRUE = (1 - 1 = 0 & 1 ¬= 0) [or whatever is more appropriate],
>>> it is then sufficient e.g. to code:
>>> IF 4 ¬= 6 & TRUE THEN <whatever>
>>> ELSE IF ¬TRUE THEN <whatever else>
>>>
>>> I.e. TRUE can be defined as a Boolean '1'b in REXX, as per above.
>>>
>>> On 06/09/2020 20:43, Paul Gilmartin wrote:
>>>> On Sun, 6 Sep 2020 12:03:18 -0400, scott Ford wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I have done things like true =‘Y’ and then
>>>>>
>>>>> If true
>>>>> ..........
>>>>> end
>>>>>
>>>> What language? That would certainly be a syntax error in Rexx.
>>>> And why? You could just omit the "if true" and code:
>>>> do
>>>> ..........
>>>> end
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> n Sun, 6 Sep 2020 17:39:48 +0000, Seymour J Metz wrote:
>>>>> A simple true=1;false=0 should suffice for clarity.
>>>>>
>>>> Perhaps not to someone most familiar with shell scripts
>>>> where the definitions are nearly the opposite (command
>>>> status ($?) = 0 means success or true).
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Sun, 6 Sep 2020 17:43:04 +0100, Rupert Reynolds wrote:
>>>>> The advantage of Boolean is clarity in something like:-
>>>>> /* Rexx */
>>>>> TRUE = (1=1)
>>>>> ...
>>>>> SELECT
>>>>> WHEN logmode = "D4A32782" & (GotASCII & GotVBMrecord) THEN do
>>>>> ...
>>>> Continuing your example, how would you have set the variables
>>>> "GotASCII" and "GotVBMrecord" using the quasi-constants TRUE
>>>> and FALSE? Does that enhance either clarity or economy of
>>>> expression?
>>>>
>>>> I'm thinking that something like:
>>>> if filetype=='ASCII' then GotASCII = TRUE; else GotASCII = FALSE
>>>> would more succinctly be written:
>>>> GotASCII = ( filetype=='ASCII' )
>>>>
>>>> But I've seen even worse, such as:
>>>> if GotASCII = true then ...
>>>> rather than simply:
>>>> if GotASCII then ...
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Sun, 6 Sep 2020 19:28:11 +0000, Seymour J Metz wrote:
>>>>> Yes, you can count on the truth values of 0 and 1 in REXX never changing.
>>>>>
>>>> Only if I spent $60 for the ANSI Standard .pdf
>>>>
>>>> -- gil
>>>>
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