Chapter 11 Writing Macro Control Statements
206 Purpose of This Chapter
11.1 Purpose of This Chapter
Macros consist of two parts: macro definitions and macro calls. A macro that has been defined can be
coded as a macro call in any source statement after that.
When a macro without parameters is called, it becomes a simple text substitution. When a macro with
parameters is called, part of the text to be substituted will be modified by the strings specified as the
parameters.
This chapter explains how define and call macros. It also describes the directives used for macros.

Common coding rules

The characters that can be used for macro names, dummy parameters, parameters, and identifiers are
upper and lower case letters, digits, and underscores (_). The first character must not be a digit.
Symbols used in expressions must have been previously defined.
The following directives cannot be coded within macro blocks.
#include directive
macro definitions
Refer to section 11.2, "Macro Definitions", regarding macro definitions and blocks.
The rept and irp directives and macro calls can be coded within macro blocks. Up to 20 nesting levels
are allowed.
A dummy parameter appearing in a string or character constant inside the macro is not expanded.
Document conventions
Symbols used in this chapter have the following meanings.
[ ] Contents of brackets [ ] may be omitted.
( ) Contents of parentheses ( ) may be repeated.