$QLENGTH (ObjectScript)

Returns the number of subscript levels in a variable.

Synopsis

$QLENGTH(var)
$QL(var)

Argument

Argument	Description
var	A string, or expression that evaluates to a string, that contains the name of a variable. The variable name can specify no subscripts or one or more subscripts.

Description

$QLENGTH returns the number of subscript levels in var. $QLENGTH simply counts the number of subscript levels specified in var. The var variable does not have to be defined for $QLENGTH to return the number of subscript levels.

Argument

var

A quoted string, or expression that evaluates to a string, which specifies a variable. It can be a local variable, a process-private global, or a global variable.

If the string is a global reference, var can specify an extended global reference by including a namespace name. Because var is a quoted string, the quotes around a namespace reference must be doubled to be parsed correctly as literal quotation marks. For example, "^|""SAMPLES""|myglobal(1,4,6)". The same applies to the quotes in a process-private global with "^" syntax. For example, "^|""^""|ppgname(3,6)". $QLENGTH does not check whether the specified namespace exists or whether the user has access privileges for the namespace.

A var must specify a variable name in canonical form (a fully expanded reference). To use $QLENGTH with a naked global reference, or with indirection, you can use the $NAME function to return the corresponding fully expanded reference.

Examples

The following example show the results of $QLENGTH when used with subscripted and unsubscripted globals. The first $QLENGTH takes a global with no subscripts and returns 0. The second $QLENGTH takes a global with two subscript levels and returns 2. Note that quotes found in the variable name are doubled because var is specified as a quoted string.

   WRITE !,$QLENGTH("^|""USER""|test")
      ; returns 0
   SET name="^|""USER""|test(1,""customer"")"
   WRITE !,$QLENGTH(name)
      ; returns 2

The following example returns the $QLENGTH value for a process-private global with three subscript levels. The $ZREFERENCE special variable contains the name of the most recently referenced variable.

   SET ^||myppg("food","fruit",1)="apples"
   WRITE !,$QLENGTH($ZREFERENCE)   ; returns 3

The following example returns the $QLENGTH value for a process-private global specified as a naked global reference. The $NAME function is used to expand the naked global reference to canonical form:

   SET ^grocerylist("food","fruit",1)="apples"
   SET ^(2)="bananas"
   WRITE !,$QLENGTH($NAME(^(2)))   ; returns 3

$QLENGTH (ObjectScript)

Synopsis

Argument

Description

Argument

var

Examples

See Also