Using other special characters when running the APIs

The QSHELL environment treats some characters with special rules. The characters include the following: \, $, %, # and `. The rules for how those characters are treated vary depending on whether they appear within quotes, and if so, whether single or double quotes are used. This applies when running APIs in the QSHELL environment or when using the QSH command from an IBM i command line.

For example, if you wanted to search for a report where a field named AMOUNT has a value of $1000.00, you need to run the ARSDOC program as follows from the QSHELL command line in the QSHELL environment:

arsdoc query -f myfolder -h instancename -i "WHERE AMOUNT = '\$1000.00'"

or using the QSHELL command on the IBM i command line:

QSH CMD('arsdoc query -f myfolder -h instancename -i "WHERE AMOUNT = ''\$1000.00''"')

If the \ is omitted before the $1000.00, the QSHELL environment will substitute $1000 with the value of the QSHELL variable named 1000 (or an empty string if no such variable exists).