ALIAS command
Syntax: |
ALIAS
|
Qualifiers: | \EXPAND |
Defaults: | \-EXPAND |
Examples: | ALIAS XRED SET XAXISCOLOR RED |
The ALIAS
command allows the user to create
new commands by equating a keyword to a command string. The command string must begin
with a valid command. For example, it cannot be a file name that is to be used with
other commands (use a character variable for that).
If the ALIAS
command is entered with no parameters, all
the current aliases will be displayed. If the ALIAS
command is entered with one parameter, the parameter is assumed to be an alias name, and
the command string associated with that name will be displayed. If a
name
and a value
are entered, and if name
already exists as an alias,
the command string value will be updated to the new value
.
If name
does not exist, a new alias will be created.
Use the
DEALIAS
command to eliminate an alias.
If the \EXPAND
qualifier is used, and if the second
parameter is a character variable (or character expression), then the value of the
variable (or of the expression) will become the command string. This allows you
to construct commands in a script and alias them to single word commands. For example:
TT = 'GRAPH X '
VECTOR V 1
INQUIRE 'Enter a vector >>' V
ALIAS\EXPAND PLOT TT//VARNAME(V)
and you can then just enter the new command PLOT
to draw the graph.