Library View Topics Framed Contents Revised Topics Previous Topic Next Topic Search Search ResultsPrevious Topic MatchNext Topic Match Notes List Notes Print Download No PDF Handheld DisconnectedHandheld ConnectedHelp

1.3.4.2 Continuation Lines



Any sentence, entry, clause, or phrase that requires more than one line can be continued in Area B of the next line that is neither a comment line nor a blank line. The line being continued is a continued line; the succeeding lines are continuation lines. Area A of a continuation line must be blank.

If there is no hyphen (-) in the indicator area (column 7) of a line, the last character of the preceding line is assumed to be followed by a space.


X DBCS literals and user-defined words containing multi-byte characters
X cannot be continued.


X Both characters making up the opening delimiter must be on the same line
X for the:

If there is a hyphen in the indicator area of a line, the first nonblank character of this continuation line immediately follows the last nonblank character of the continued line without an intervening space.

If the continued line contains a nonnumeric literal without a closing quotation mark, all spaces at the end of the continued line (through column 72) are considered to be part of the literal. The continuation line must contain a hyphen in the indicator area, and the first nonblank character must be a quotation mark. The continuation of the literal begins with the character immediately following the quotation mark.

If the last character on the continued line of a nonnumeric literal is a single quotation mark in column 72, the continuation line must start with two consecutive quotation marks. This will result in a single quotation mark as part of the value of the nonnumeric literal.


X If the last character on the continued line of a nonnumeric literal is a
X single quotation mark in Area B, the continuation line may start with a
X single quotation mark. This will result in two consecutive nonnumeric
X literals instead of one continued nonnumeric literal.

Both characters making up the pseudo-text delimiter separator "==" must be on the same line.

To continue a literal such that the continued lines and the continuation lines are part of one literal:

Given the following examples, the number and size of literals created are as follows:

Subtopics:



Previous Topic Next Topic © Copyright IBM Corp. 1991, 1998

IBM Library Server Copyright 1989, 2005 IBM Corporation. All rights reserved.





Return to library:   z/OS | z/OS.e | TPF | z/VSE | z/VM | IBM Hardware | IBM System z Redbooks
Glossary:   IBM terminology
Publications:   How to order publications
Readers:   Download IBM Library Reader | Download IBM Softcopy Reader | Download Adobe® Acrobat® Reader®
Library management:   Download IBM Softcopy Librarian
Contacts:   Contact z/OS


Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat, the Acrobat logo, and Acrobat Reader are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems incorporated.