Associate an indicator variable with a host variable

You associate an indicator variable with its host variable in one of the following two ways:

• Prefix the indicator variable with a colon (:) and place the keyword INDICATOR between the host variable name and the indicator variable name as follows:

  :hostvar INDICATOR :indvar

• Place a separator symbol between the host variable name and the indicator variable name. The following separator symbols are valid:
  • A colon (:)

    :hostvar:indvar

  • A dollar sign ($)

    $hostvar$indvar

    You can use a dollar sign ($) instead of a colon (:), but the colon makes the code easier to read.

You can have one or more white space characters between the host variable and indicator variable. For example, both of the following formats are valid to specify an indicator variable, hostvarind, on the hostvar host variable:

$hostvar:hostvarind
$hostvar :hostvarind