Begin...End Constructs

Many DSP tags have both beginning and ending elements. When you use the %loop% tag, for example, you enclose the code over which you want the DSP Processor to iterate, within a %loop%…%end% construct.

To make your DSP easier to read, you can append a suffix to the %end% element of any construct to visually associate it with its beginning element. For example, in the following DSP, the %end% element of the %loop% construct is named %endloop% and the %end% element for the %ifvar% construct is named %endifvar%.

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%ifvar orders%
%loop orders%
Date: %value orderDate%PO Number: %value orderNum%
%endloop%
%endifvar%
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Be aware that only the first three characters of an %end% element are significant. The DSP Processor ignores any suffixes that you add and simply associates an %end% element with the most recent beginning element (in other words, the %end% element always ends the current construct). This means that you can nest one construct within another (as shown above), but you cannot overlap them.

For example, you cannot use the %comment%…%endcomment% construct to “remark out” an %endloop% element as shown in the following sample. Because the DSP Processor ignores suffixes, the first %endloop% tag would end the comment block, and the %endcomment% tag would end the loop.

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%ifvar orders%
%loop orders%
Date: %value orderDate% PO Number: %value orderNum%
%comment%
Buyer: %value orderDate% PO Number: %value orderNum%
%endloop%
%endcomment%
Shipping Details:
Date Shipped: %value shipDate% 
Carrier: %value carrier% %value serviceLevel% 
======================================================
%endloop%
%endifvar%
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