assign

Type

Procedural Command

Purpose

The optional assign command is used to give a value to a temporary or global variable. (You must define a variable before you can assign it a value.) A variable is used to store a value, such as a text string or a calculated result, that can change during the processing of a procedure. By specifying the variable's name, the stored value can be used like any other value in a script.

The status of a variable can be global (denoted by the keyword global) or temporary (denoted by the keyword temp). A temporary variable maintains it's value only during the current procedure. A global variable can pass its value from one procedure to another. To pass a value from one procedure to another, the global variable must be defined identically in each procedure.

Syntax

assign global|temp VARIABLE NAME := ASSIGNED VALUE .

Usage

The assign command is followed by:

• The status of the variable (global or temporary).

• The name of the variable (without quotation marks).

• The assignment operator.

• The value assigned to the variable.

• A period.

Example

define temp "DISCOUNT" Number .

for RESERVATIONS with TOTAL DUE > 2000 ;

assign temp DISCOUNT := RESERVATIONS

TOTAL DUE * 0.15 .

modify records

TOTAL DUE := TOTAL DUE - temp DISCOUNT .

end

This script tells DataEase: (1) Create (define) a temporary variable called DISCOUNT to store a number while processing the current script, (2) find all the RESERVATIONS records that have a value greater than 2000 in the TOTAL DUE field, (3) give (assign) the DISCOUNT variable a number value determined by multiplying the TOTAL DUE on each reservation by 15%, and (4) modify these RESERVATIONS records by subtracting the value of the DISCOUNT variable from the value in the TOTAL DUE field.