The VGET statement copies variables from the shared or application profile variable pool or from system symbols.

>>-VGET--name-list--+---------+--+------------------------+----><
                    +-ASIS----+  '-SYMNAMES(symname-list)-'   
                    +-SHARED--+                               
                    +-PROFILE-+                               
                    '-SYMDEF--'                               

where:

name-list

Specifies one or more dialog variables, separated by commas or blanks, whose values are to be copied from the shared or application profile pool or from system symbols. The names are passed in standard name-list format. A name-list of more than one name must be enclosed in parentheses.

ASIS

Variable values are to be copied from the shared variable pool, if found there; otherwise, they are to be copied from the application profile pool. ASIS is the default value.

SHARED

Variable values are to be copied from the shared variable pool.

PROFILE

Variable values are to be copied from the application profile variable pool. ISPF deletes any shared pool variables having the same name, even if they do not exist in the application profile pool.

SYMDEF

The values for the variables defined by name-list are to be obtained from the system symbols.

SYMNAMES(symname-list)

symname-list lists the names of one or more system symbols that are to be obtained. It is specified in the same format as the name-list parameter. Where symname-list is omitted, the system symbols obtained are the same as those specified on the name-list parameter.

One reason why you might use the SYMNAMES parameter is that some system symbols may have the same name as a reserved or read-only dialog variable. In this case you must specify a different variable name in name-list and specify the actual symbol name in symname-list. For example, you could specify this command to obtain the current value for the static symbol SYSCLONE and store it in a variable named CLONE:

VGET (CLONE) SYMDEF SYMNAMES(SYSCLONE)

If there are fewer symbol names in symname-list than names in the name-list, then the symbol names are used from the symname-list until there are no more corresponding symbol names, then the remaining names in the name-list are used. In other words, if there are five names in name-list and only three symbol names, the symbol names are used for the first three symbols and the last two names in the name-list are used for the remaining symbols.

If the number of symbol names in symname-list exceeds the number of names in name-list, a severe error occurs.

This is an optional parameter. It is only valid when the SYMDEF parameter is also specified.