LINEIN (Line Input) Function

To read a line from a stream into a REXX program, use the LINEIN function. The format is:

where:

name

is name of the data stream (such as a file) from which the line is read.

line

the read position of the string.

count

the number of lines read from the character input stream.

The first time a program calls LINEIN, it opens the named file (name) for reading and returns the first line of data. The second call to LINEIN, reads the second line and returns the second line of data, and so on until the program ends (or you close the stream with LINEOUT). In other words, LINEIN keeps track of its place in the stream with a kind of bookmark, called the read pointer. LINEOUT uses a similar marker, the write pointer. For more information, see Accessing Data within a Stream.