HLASM Language Reference

| X2D('') has value '+'
| X2D('91') has value '+145'
| X2D('F1') has value '+241'
| X2D('7FFFFFFF') has value '+2147483647'
| X2D('FFFFFFF1') has value '-15'
┌───────────┐
│
│
│Character │
│Expression │
│
│
└─────┬─────┘
│
▼ Can be any of
| ├─────────────┬─────────────┬──────────────────────┐
| ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼
| ┌─────┴─────┐ ┌─────┴──────┐ ┌────┴──────────────┐ ┌─────┴────────┬────────────┐
| │ ││ ││ ││ │ │
| │ Character │ │ CharExpr │ │ Character-Valued │ │ (Duplication │ CharExpr │
| │ Value │ │ . ◄──┐ │ │ Built-In Function │ │ Factor) │ │
| │ │ │ CharExpr │ │ │ │ │ │ │
| └─────┬─────┘ └──────────┼─┘ └───────────────────┘ └──────────────┴────────────┘
│
│
│
└── Period (.) = Concatenation Character
▼ Can be any of
├─────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────┐
▼ ▼ ▼ ▼
┌─────┴─────┐ ┌─────┴─────┐ ┌─────┴─────┐ ┌─────┴─────┐
│ Substring │ │ Variable │ │ Self- │ │ Attribute│
│ │ │ Symbol │ │ Defining │ │ Reference │
│ │ │ │ │ Term │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ T' or O' │
└───────────┘ └───────────┘ └───────────┘ └───────────┘
Figure 107. Defining Character (SETC) Expressions
Notes:
1. The attribute reference term must not be preceded by a duplication factor.
Evaluation of Character Expressions: The value of a character expression is
the character string within the enclosing single quotation marks, after the assembler
carries out any substitution for variable symbols.
Character strings, including variable symbols, can be concatenated to each other
within a character expression. The resultant string is the value of the expression.
Notes:
1. Use two single quotation marks to generate a single quotation mark as part of
the value of a character expression.
The following statement assigns the character value L'SYMBOL to the SETC
symbol &LENGTH.
&LENGTH SETC
'L''SYMBOL'
2. A double ampersand generates a double ampersand as part of the value of a
character expression. To generate a single ampersand in a character
expression, use the substring notation; for example:
&AMP SETC '&&'(1,1)
Note: A quoted single ampersand '&' is not a valid character string.
382 HLASM V1R5 Language Reference