REFWINDOW

Purpose:

Directly references a Window in an SPL function.

Syntax:

REFWINDOW(var)

var

A variable that contains a Window.

Returns:

A window.

Example:

setxrange(w)

{

if (argc < 1)

{

// reference the current Window

w = refwindow(W0);

}

setx(w, 10, 20);

}

If the function setxrange is invoked without an input Window, the input defaults to the current Window. W0 refers to the current Window and the statement:

w = refwindow(W0)

sets variable w to the current Window. If the statement was:

w = W0;

then variable w would be assigned a copy of the series in W0 instead of the window itself. Since SETX expects an optional Window, the statement:

setx(w, 10, 20);

would fail.

Remarks:

As shown in the example, REFWINDOW is very useful for defaulting the input to an SPL function to the current Window.

REFWINDOW can be abbreviated as REFWIN.

See REFSERIES to reference a series in an SPL function without creating a copy.