Reading From and Writing to an External File

How to:

Dialogue Manager reads information from an external file and writes information to it. This section describes the command -WRITE. For information on -READ, see Supplying Values for Variables.


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Syntax: How to Use the -WRITE Command
-WRITE filename [NOCLOSE] text

where:

filename

Is the name of the file being written to. For more information, see Platform-Specific Commands and Features.

NOCLOSE

Keeps the external file open until the -WRITE operation is complete. A file kept open with NOCLOSE is closed using the command:

-CLOSE filename

Note: The -RUN command does not close an external file if NOCLOSE is specified.

text

Is any combination of variables and text. If the command continues over several lines, put a comma at the end of the line and a hyphen at the beginning of each succeeding line.



Example: Using the -WRITE Command

The file name parameter is a symbolic name for a physical file known by the server operating system. Each operating system has its own method for associating a symbolic name with a physical file.

For instance, under MVS, the DYNAM command is used:

DYNAM ALLOC FILE MYFILE DSNAME EDAUSER.MYFILE.DATA SHR

On UNIX, Windows, OpenVMS, and IBM i platforms, the FILEDEF command is used. For example, on UNIX:

FILEDEF MYFILE DISK /home/edauser/myfile.dat

the data file portion would use the actual native file name convention of the platform.

The following example sets the physical name EDAUSER.MYFILE.DATA to the symbolic name MYFILE. Consequently, you could issue the following command:

-WRITE CAR &ALINE

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