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ICAM Virtual Machine ® Virtual Machine Reference, Model Customization
The Macro Language, Fundamentals of the Macro Language
� An expression with sequence data type consists of an ordered set of data elements. The
data elements within a sequence can be of any type, and do not all have to be the same
data type.
The macro language does not require strong data typing. This means that the same variable can
hold information of different types during the course of processing. This provides a great deal of
flexibility and simplifies coding. For those who prefer a more formal arrangement, the DECLAR
command can be used to strongly type variables.
Macro Variables
There are five types of variables: user variables, predefined global variables, predefined local
variables, $P arguments and macro system variables. The following table describes the format of
the various types of variables:
Variable Type Variable Format Examples
User A...Z~[A...Z 0...9_ ] I,ABC2,M4_J
Predefined Global %Gnn %G2,%G02,%G23
Predefined Local %Lnn %L2,%L02,%L23
$P Argument $Pnn $P2,$P02,$P23
System $name $XC,$PI,$T
User variables must always start with an alphabetic character. The remaining characters can be
any combination of letters, digits and the underscore character. The maximum size of a user
variable is 32 characters.
Global variables retain their value across all macros; local variables only retain their value while
a macro is running and are forgotten once it is finished. Global values can therefore be used (and
in fact are the only way) to pass information from one macro to another, whereas local variables
are used for calculations local to a specific macro. By default, user variables are local unless a
DECLAR command is given in the machine startup macro declaring the variable as global.
For predefined local variables, predefined global variables and $P arguments, the leading zero of
the variable number is optional (in other words, %G02 is same as %G2, %L02 is same as %L2,
and $P02 is same as $P2). Predefined global variables (%G00…%G99) do not need a DECLAR
statement since they are predefined as global. The same is true for predefined local variables
(%L01…%L99).
There is a predefined set of macro system variables. Some variables cannot be assigned values,
and most that can be assigned can take only numeric values. See “Simulation Macro Variables”
on page 205 for a list of available macro system variables.
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