Scripting Guide - SAS

Chapter 5 JSL Building Blocks 97
Name Resolution
Host Information
The Host Is() inquiry function identifies the current operating system. Then actions specific to that
operating system can be performed.
For example, if the operating system is Windows, the following script loads a Windows Dynamic Link
Library (DLL):
If(Host is(Windows),
dll_obj = Load DLL("C:/Windows/System32/user32.dll")
);
You could also use Host Is() to specify text sizes in reports for different operating systems. If you
commonly write your scripts on Windows and share them with Macintosh users, the results can look
different from what you intended. For example, the following expression sets the text to a larger size on
Macintosh and a smaller size on Windows:
textsize = if(host is(Mac),12,10);
Version Information
The JMP Version() inquiry function returns the JMP version as a string. You might use this function to
determine the JMP version and then run a script compatible with that version.
JMP Version(); // returns "10.0.0" in JMP 10
JMP Version(); // returns " 9.0.0" in JMP 9
Notice that a leading blank is inserted before versions less than 10.0.0. This blank helps when comparing
version numbers. Without the leading blank, 9.0.0 is interpreted as greater than 10.0.0.
Name Resolution
In JMP, you identify the following types of objects by a name:
• Columns and table variables in a data table
• Global variables, which hold values for the remainder of a JMP session
• Scriptable object types
• Arguments and local variables inside formulas
Most of the time, you can just use an object’s name directly to refer to the object. Consider the following
example:
ratio = height / weight;
Depending on the complexity of your script, it might be obvious that ratio is a variable and height and
weight are data table column names. But what if the meanings are ambiguous? A script might use ratio as a
global variable and as column names.
JMP interprets object names using name resolution. The following rules are applied in order to unscoped
names: