SAS Component Language Dictionary

_VALUE_

Contains the value of a FRAME entry component

Category:

System Variable

Details
Example
See Also

Details

_VALUE_ is a system variable. It is provided automatically by the FRAME entry in SAS/AF, but the SCL compiler does not automatically create a space for it in the SCL data vector. As a result, you get a warning when you compile a FRAME or SCL entry that uses _VALUE_. The warning is generated because _VALUE_ is being referenced at compile time, but no value is assigned to it until run time. You can safely ignore this warning. If you prefer to prevent the warning message from being generated, use the following assignment statement at the top of your program:

_value_=_value_;

If the FRAME entry component has a character value, then you must declare _VALUE_ as a character variable using the DECLARE or LENGTH statement.

Numeric FRAME entry components and character FRAME entry components cannot share the same methods if the methods use _VALUE_, because _VALUE_ cannot be declared as both a numeric and character variable in the same SCL entry. Doing so results in one of the following execution errors:

ERROR: Expecting string ($),
       received SCL number (symbol '_VALUE_').
ERROR: Expecting number (#),
       received SCL string (symbol '_VALUE_').

_VALUE_ has a valid value only when a FRAME entry or a method for a FRAME entry component is running.

Example

Suppose a FRAME entry contains two Version 6 text entry controls, OBJ1 and OBJ2. OBJ1 is subclassed, and its _select method is defined as follows:

length _value_ text $20;
SELECT: method;
   _frame_._getWidgets('obj2',obj2);
   obj2._getText(text);
  _value_ = text;
endmethod;

When OBJ1 is modified, the _select method queries the object identifier for OBJ2 and retrieves its value. It then assigns that value to OBJ1 by assigning TEXT to _VALUE_.