6. Case of the keywords factors

Factors keywords are mandatory or optional. It is possible to control the minimum and maximum number of occurrences of a factor keyword.

Declarations are made using the keyword FACT

• The status

It is linked to the keyword factor.

Recognized statuses are only:

“o”	Required
“f”	Optional
“d”	Optional but used by default, i.e. optional for the user when entering but mandatory for the code to function. The default values for simple keywords should define the syntax of the entire keyword factor when viewed from the code when the user does not enter anything. The user does not need to enter the factor keyword and its simple keywords for it to exist and be visible to the supervisor at run time.

• The number of occurences

As with simple keywords, the min and max arguments make it possible to specify the expected occurrences of factor keywords. If you don’t enter anything, the default situation is max=1, so the factor keyword is not repeatable.

Examples:


MCFACT = FACT (status='f', min=3, max=3,...)

The keyword factor is mandatory and must appear exactly three times.

MCFACT = FACT (status=”f”, max=”**”,…)

The keyword factor is optional but can appear as many times as you want.

MCFACT = FACT (status=”d”, max=1,…)

the factor keyword is optional and not repeatable but if the user does not specify it, it is nevertheless taken into account and the values of the simple keywords (under the factor keyword) are assigned by default.