Command Directory

assign

a{ssign}

	Format 1: `assign` SCALAR-TYPE-EXPRESSION = VALUE
	Format 2: `assign` AGGREGATE-TYPE-EXPRESSION = 1 {VALUE-LIST}\| AGGREGATE-TYPE-EXPRESSION

DESCRIPTION

The assign command assigns the value (or values) specified by VALUE, VALUE-LIST, or AGGREGATE-TYPE-EXPRESSION to the expression identified by SCALAR-TYPE-EXPRESSION or AGGREGATE-TYPE-EXPRESSION. In both formats, the equal sign is required.

Format 1: Format 1 assigns a value, specified by VALUE, to the arithmetic, pointer, or bit-field object identified by SCALAR-TYPE-EXPRESSION. The SCALAR-TYPE- EXPRESSION argument is an expression whose type is arithmetic, pointer, or bit-field.

VALUE is an expression whose type is one of the following:

constant
an expression of scalar type
address
enumeration constant
array name.

See Debugger Variables for details on argument types that are used with the assign command. If the VALUE argument and the SCALAR argument have different types, a conversion is made according to the SAS/C Compiler's rules for conversions.

You can assign a value to any expression of scalar type visible at the point where you issue the assign command.

Format 2: Format 2 assigns the source values on the right side of the assignment operator (=), specified by VALUE-LIST or AGGREGATE-TYPE-EXPRESSION, to a target aggregate identified by AGGREGATE-TYPE-EXPRESSION on the left side of the assignment operator.

The AGGREGATE-TYPE-EXPRESSION arguments can be an expression of type structure or union, provided that both source and target are declared with the same tag in the same compilation. (AGGREGATE-TYPE-EXPRESSION cannot be an array; use the copy command with arrays.)

The VALUE-LIST argument can also be used to assign values to the target AGGREGATE-TYPE-EXPRESSION. Any of the items in a VALUE-LIST can be a structure or union. If a union is specified, VALUE-LIST must contain exactly one item that is assigned to the first member of the union. For example, in the following statement, 5 is assigned to the first member of some_union :

assign some_union = { 5 }

To assign a value (for example, 9) to the second member of some_union , use assign as follows:

assign some_union.member2 = 9

The AGGREGATE-TYPE-EXPRESSION argument can be a structure with members that are aggregates.

The VALUE-LIST argument contains any or all of the following items, enclosed by braces:

one or more VALUE arguments (as described under Format 1) separated by commas:

{VALUE, VALUE, VALUE, . . .}
one or more NULL-INITIALIZERs. A NULL-INITIALIZER is an empty pair of braces: {}.
one or more VALUE-LISTs (this means that a VALUE-LIST can contain nested VALUE-LISTs).

Rules for assigning VALUE-LISTs to aggregate objects:

An aggregate must be assigned values via a VALUE-LIST.
The order of the elements in a VALUE-LIST must correspond to the order of members in the aggregate.
If an aggregate has more members than there are elements in the VALUE-LIST to be assigned to it, no assignment is made to the extra members.
If a VALUE-LIST has more elements than there are members in the aggregate to which it is assigned, the extra elements in the VALUE-LIST are ignored. (In this case, you receive a message.)
If the VALUE-LIST contains a NULL-INITIALIZER, the corresponding member of the aggregate is not modified.

One of the elements of the aggregate can be an aggregate, in which case, the rules above apply (recursively) to that element. Therefore, if a member of a structure is a structure, the debugger expects to find a VALUE-LIST nested in another VALUE-LIST. For example, consider the following structure:

   struct a {
            int b;
            struct ccc d;
            long e;
            };

The structure needs a VALUE-LIST, as follows, with the values to be assigned to struct ccc d in the inside set of braces:

{b-value, {d-value, d-value, d-value, . . .}, e-value}

EXAMPLES

The assign examples in this section are based on the following declarations and #define statement:

   #define B_MAX 9

   int ival;
   char *p;
   struct XXX int a; short b,c;d;

The semantics in the examples are the same as for the assignment statement. In other words, assign i=5 does the same as i=5; in C.

assign ival = 3+B_MAX: assigns 12 to ival.
assign p = &ival: assigns the address of ival to a pointer object (scalar).
assign ival = 20: assigns a constant to an arithmetic object (scalar).
assign d = {1,2}: assigns values from a value list to a structure d (d.a=1,d.b=2) .
assign d = {1,ival,3}: assigns values from a value list to a structure d (d.a=1,d.b=20,d.c=3).
assign d = {d.b}: assigns d.b (a short) to the first element of structure d (d.a =20).

SYSTEM DEPENDENCIES

none

COMMAND CAN BE ISSUED FROM

PROFILE no

configuration file no

Source window prefix none

SCOPE

The assign command uses command scope to resolve references to all identifiers.

RETURN CODES SET

	Successful: 0
	Unsuccessful: 1