using output as

control structure

Syntax

using output as destination modifiers? (& destination modifiers?)*
   local-scope

Argument definitions

destination: An output destination such as an open stream or an expression that returns a output destination (the file or referent keywords or an external string sink function)

modifiers: Modifiers that affect how data is written to the destination

Purpose

You can use using output as as a prefix to change the current output scope for the duration of a line or a block of code:

  process
     using output as file "out.txt"
        submit file "in.txt"

You can direct output to a file, as above, or to a stream, a referent, or a string sink as in the next three examples:

  process
     local stream foo
  
     open foo as buffer
     using output as foo
        submit file "in.txt"
  
  
  process
     using output as referent "foo"
        submit file "in.txt"
  
  
  process
     local xslt.stylesheet stylesheet initial { xslt.compile file "stylesheet1.xsl" }
  
     using output as xslt.writer with stylesheet into file "input1.out"
        submit file "input1.xml"

If you use using output as to output directly to a stream, that stream must be open:

  process
     local stream out-file
  
     open out-file as file "out.txt"
     using output as out-file
        submit file "in.txt"

If you use using output as with a stream or a string sink, you can apply the following modifiers:

a string expression containing element content modifiers
the binary open modifier

Related Syntax

Related Concepts