Summary

For your convenience, here is a summary of how to use parameters. If you want more information, go to the appropriate section.

Command-line values
On the command line you can supply values by keyword or by position. See Specifying Parameter Values on Command Lines for more details including abbreviated keywords.

ACCEPT, PROMPT, RESET command-line special keywords
ACCEPT accepts all the suggested defaults that would otherwise be prompted. PROMPT prompts for all the parameters not given on the command line, and RESET resets all the suggested defaults to their initial values. You can find more details and examples in Special Keywords: ACCEPT, PROMPT, RESET.

NAME - Prompt string /Suggested default/ $>$
This is a schematic of a prompt. NAME is the parameter's name. You normally respond with the value for the parameter, but there are special responses available (see below). If you just hit the return key, the suggested default becomes the parameter value. Many parameters are defaulted without prompting. See Defaults and Globals for more details.

Here is a list of some example parameter values to illustrate the possible ways you can respond to a prompt. Where there are command-line differences, they are noted.

5409.12
This is a scalar. Numerical values can be integer, real, or double precision.

12,34,56,78
This is a vector. They must be enclosed in [ ] if the array is supplied on the command line, or for character arrays.

[[11,21,31],[12,22,32]]
This is a 3$\times$2 array. Arrays of dimension $>$ 2 should appear in nested brackets. See Arrays for more about array values.

T

no
This is a TRUE value followed by a FALSE values for logical parameters. Acceptable values are TRUE, FALSE, YES, NO, T, F, Y, N and their lowercase equivalents. On the command line, the parameter name as a keyword means TRUE. If the name is prefixed with NO, the value is set to FALSE.

a string

"a string"
This is a string. Strings need not be quoted at prompts. Quotes are required on the command line if the string includes spaces or wildcards, or is a comma-separated array of strings. There is more in Strings. Some parameters offer a selection from a menu to which you give an unambiguous abbreviation to select an option. Other parameters can be numerical or a string. (See Menus for more information.)

filename

@123
This enters a filename (or tape drive). You give a text filename verbatim, and NDFs without the file extension. Foreign formats will usually have the file extension. Should the filename be a numerical value, it must be preceded by an @. There is more in Strings.

min

max
This selects the minimum- or maximum-allowed value, but not all parameters have a defined range of permitted values. See MIN and MAX parameter values.

!
Enters the null value. This has a variety of special meanings; which one will depend on the particular parameter. For example, null might indicate that an output file is not to be created, or a loop is to be ended. There are more examples in Abort and Null.

!!
This aborts the application cleanly.

?

??
A single question mark presents the online help for the parameter, and then reprompts. A double question mark leaves you in the help system to explore other help information. See Help for examples. These special values are not supported from the command line.

\
This accepts the suggested default for the prompted parameter and the respective suggested defaults for all subsequent parameters for which prompting would otherwise occur. On the command line \ is an abbreviation of the ACCEPT keyword, and it applies to all parameters that would otherwise be prompted. Note that from the shell you write \\, as \ is a shell metacharacter.