Intrinsic Special Variable

A Intrinsic Special Variable is something you type into a MUMPS program, which fits into the syntax in the places that a variable normally would be used.

It is named a special variable because rather than just having the value that is given to it by the current running MUMPS program, it has a value that is changing based on some internal ("intrinsic") logic that is provided by the MUMPS language implementation.

Intrinsic special variables have a syntax that is similar to that of functions in the MUMPS language. Their names start with the dollar sign character "$" and are some alphabetic letters, without any difference in name based on whether they are upper case letters or lower case letters.

Examples of Intrinsic Special Variables are:

Special Variables

• $D[EVICE]
• $EC[ODE]
• $ER[EF]
• $ES[TACK]
• $ET[RAP]
• $H[OROLOG]
• $I[O]
• $IOR[EFERENCE]
• $J[OB]
• $K[EY]
• $PD[ISPLAY]
• $PIOR[EFERENCE]
• $P[RINCIPAL]
• $Q[UIT]
• $R[EFERENCE]
• $ST[ACK]
• $S[TORAGE]
• $SY[STEM]
• $T[EST]
• $TL[EVEL]
• $TR[ESTART]
• $X
• $Y

Notice that the above links are to pages provided by Jacquard Systems and are part of the MUMPS By Example written by Ed de Moel which is on the page: http://www.jacquardsystems.com/Examples/index.htm