Specifying Too Many Values

When you specify more values than the number of variables following the PULL or ARG instruction, the last variable gets the remaining values. For example, you pass three numbers to "add".

    EXEC rexx.exec(add) '42 21 10' exec

The first variable following the ARG instruction, number1, is assigned the value 42. The second variable gets both '21 10'. In this situation, the exec ends with an error when it tries to add the two variables. In other situations, the exec might not end in error.

To prevent the last variable from getting the remaining values, use a period (.) at the end of the PULL or ARG instruction.

ARG number1 number2 .

The period acts as a "dummy variable" to collect unwanted extra information. If there is no extra information, the period is ignored. You can also use a period as a place holder within the PULL or ARG instruction as follows:

ARG . number1 number2

In this case, the first value, 42, is discarded and number1 and number2 get the next two values, 21 and 10.