Use ESL action routines and internal subroutines to define a set of action statements to be performed in many places throughout the ESL program. You can use these constructs to avoid having to specify the same set of action statements many times within a program.

 

You cannot define another action routine or subroutine within a definition. However, you can

 

Invoke action routines from within another action routine or subroutine.

Invoke subroutines from within another action routine or subroutine, provided the subroutine has been declared previously.

 

With ESL subroutines, you can also use local variables and parameters. Note that array variables may not be passed to ESL subroutines.

 

All blocks within a subroutine must be guarded blocks.

 

Action routines and ESL subroutines are not global; they must be defined in every program that references them. To save time and space, you can put them in a separate file and include the file in the program. (See The include Statement for information on the include statement.)