From: "David A. Black" <dblack@...>
Date: 2009-06-24T21:34:10+09:00
Subject: Re: Noob question on strings

Hi --

On Wed, 24 Jun 2009, Fredrik Ludvigsen wrote:

> Would anyone care to explain what happens when the following is
> executed? (I already know what gets printed, but not why...)
>
> print <<-STRING1, <<-STRING2
>  Concat
>  STRING1
>    enate
>    STRING2
>
>
> I'm sorry if it has been answered before, but I didn't know just what to
> search for in the forum...

You're asking for two strings to be printed. The first is specified as
"everything starting on the next line and ending at the first
occurrence of 'STRING1' on a line by itself, without including that
line". That's what <<-STRING1 means. The second is similarly specified
with regard to the string 'STRING2', but starts after the STRING1
string has already consumed the "Concat" line.

This construct is called a "here-document". You've come up with a
fairly arcane use of it :-)


David

-- 
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