string-dereference#

Purpose#

Substitutes the value of a string variable into commands that expect literal strings.

Format#

command ^varname

Parameters#

param varname:

A string variable containing the value to substitute.

type varname:

string

Examples#

Output Command#

Many GAUSS commands accept literal string arguments without quotes:

// Direct literal string
output file=/Users/jason/gauss26/foo.txt on;

To use a variable instead, use the ^ dereference operator:

fname = "/Users/jason/gauss26/foo.txt";
output file=^fname on;

Load Command#

// Literal filename
load x = mydata.fmt;

// Using a variable
datafile = "mydata.fmt";
load x = ^datafile;

Open Command#

filepath = "/data/myfile.dat";
open fp = ^filepath for read;

Multiple Substitutions#

dirname = "/Users/jason/data/";
filename = "results.csv";
fullpath = dirname $+ filename;

output file=^fullpath on;
print "Results written";
output off;

Remarks#

The ^ operator is used with commands that traditionally expect literal (unquoted) string arguments.
It allows dynamic file paths and names to be constructed at runtime.
The variable must contain a string value.
Common commands that support ^ include: output, load, save, open, run, #include.

Note

The ^ character has different meanings in different contexts:

String dereference (this page): ^varname substitutes a variable’s value in literal string contexts
Element-by-element power: .^ raises each element to a power (e.g., x .^ 2)

GAUSS uses .^ for exponentiation, not ^ alone. The standalone ^ is reserved for string dereference.