DCL INQUIRE and string Case Sensitivity

[niall oconnor]

Hi Folks,

Not sure if this is possible or not in DCL, Basically I need to enter a string using the DCL INQUIRE command and for the value not automatically be converted to uppercase, is this possible?

eg.
$inquire lower_case "Enter something in lower"
$sh sym lower_case

the symbol will always be in uppercase

[Joseph Huber_1]

Yes, but the user entering the string has to use string-quotes, i.e.
entering lowercase results in LOWERCASE
entering "lowercase" results in lowercase

If the user can't be trained to use DCL quoting, a simple
READ/PROMPT="Enter something in lower" lower_case
will not touch the string casing.

[Joseph Huber_1 · Accepted solution]

correction: the full READ command is:

READ/PROMPT="Enter something in lower" SYS$COMMAND lower_case

[Volker Halle]

Niall,

instead of using DCL INQUIRE, use DCL READ:

AXPVMS $ read/prompt="Enter mixed-case string: " sys$command x
Enter mixed-case string: xxYY
AXPVMS $ sho sym x
X = "xxYY"

Volker.

[Jan van den Ende]

Niall,

Just replace INQUIRE by READ SYS$COMMAND symbolname.
Do realise that that symbol will be a LOCAL symbol; if you need the value at other command levels you will have to assign a global symbol with the value of the just-read local ymbol.
You can use a /PROMPT="prompt string"
You can use a timeout, errorlabel etc.
Full info in HELP READ.
I do not think I have used INQUIRE myself in the last 20-odd years.

hth

Proost.

Have one on me.

jpe

[niall oconnor]

That's perfect Joseph, the Read Prompt is exactly what I was looking for! Many thanks!
Niall.

[niall oconnor]

Thanks Volker and Jan too, looks like I should question why I ever used the inquire command at all! Many thanks folks. Niall.

[niall oconnor]

By Using the READ DCL command rather than INQUIRE gets over the limitation that I was having.

[Fekko Stubbe]

Be aware: With READ you do not have recall capabilities (only the last line)