PACK

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Creates a packed string made up of any number of strings of varying lengths.

Type

String function

Format

PACK(flag 'string1'...'stringn')
flag
A boolean value that controls how imbedded packed strings are processed:
0
Packed strings are treated as normal character strings.
1
Any packed strings found in string1, etc., are unpacked, then repacked as if the substrings were passed separately.
string1...stringn
The source text strings.

Usage Notes®

  1. PACK allows you to build a string that is made up of any number of variable length strings.
  2. PACK allows you to pass data from one dialog to another in a single string.
  3. Set flag to 1 (true) to iteratively build a packed string if you do not know all of the pieces at once. See "Example."
  4. When you refer to a packed string, enclose it in quotes. Otherwise it is tokenized and the control information is lost.
  5. The packed string can be split again using the UNPACK function.

Example

Use the following example to set up a parameter list of four entries:
set Parm (pack(0 &Val1 &Val2 'Const Char' &Val4))
To append more strings to Parm, use:
set Parm (pack(1 '&Parm' &Addl1 'More Data' &Val6))

See Also

UNPACK