PARSE
Tests a single Zim command, or an application program, for syntactic and semantic accuracy.
Syntax
PARSE commandstring | docname
Parameters
commandstring | Any character string, enclosed in quotation marks, that represents a Zim command to be parsed. |
docname | The name of an application document that contains an application program to be parsed. |
Comments
The PARSE command enables you to check an individual command or an entire program without executing either the command or the program. Executing a PARSE command does not affect any data values held either in memory or in the database. The PARSE command reports any syntactic or semantic irregularities that the PARSE command uncovers.
The sets created by FIND commands in parsed programs are defined. Only the directories accessed at the time that the PARSE command is executed are used. The ACCESS and RELEASE commands are parsed but not executed.
A program is parsed on a line-by-line basis. A program called from the program being parsed is not parsed, but the software does check to see if the program exists. All parts of commands with conditions are parsed, regardless of the validity of the conditions or the presence of any BREAK, CONTINUE, or TRANSFORM command.
Example
To check a command before running it, use
parse “list all Employees where LastName = Smith”
If you have an application program MyProg that calls the program SubUserCom, enter
parse MyProg
Only the command statements in MyProg are parsed. The software checks that SubUserCom exists, but does not parse it.