neoTIP1: When in doubt, use the ! character


NeoBook provides a lot of options for specifying the contents of parameters associated with commands ; here are some examples ...



As you can see, not only can you concatenate (join) hard coded text strings with [variables], but also perform simple math ... however, this can also present problems at times ... consider the following example ...



... [DateOfBirth] will contain the value 0.0001250625312656328 ... which is 03 divided by 12 ... giving 0.25 ... which is then divided by 1999. But what if you don't want NeoBook to perform this kind of math ... and just treat it like a text string ... you use the ! character to tell it accept the parameter string AS IS ...


... you use the same technique to prevent NeoBook from interpreting the other math operators (like + or - or * or ^) ... and since there is no harm in placing this prefix character even when there isn't any math operator in the rest of the parameter, my motto is when in doubt, use the ! character

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