Alongside the line number variables (#L00..#L20) which can be assigned any line numbers, there are also four special characters (*, %, $, ?) which represent symbolic line numbers.
The current line number can be addressed via the symbolic line number *, the lowest line number in a work file by the symbolic line number % and the highest line number in a work file by the symbolic line number $.
When EDT is started, these three symbolic line numbers have the value 1.0000. The symbolic line number ? contains the first hit line returned by a preceding @ON statement. When EDT is started, it has the value 0.0000 and is only modified by @ON statements which return a hit. The four symbolic line numbers *, %, $ and ? are work file-specific. In addition, the @DO statement (format 1) makes it possible to define a special character as a loop character in a @DO procedure. This loop symbol is assigned a sequence of values which are defined by means of a start value, an end value and an increment (which must also be specified in the @DO statement).
In the procedure, this special character can then be used like a symbolic line number representing the current value of the loop symbol in EDT statements. For the special characters that can be used as the loop symbol, see the description of the @DO statement (format 1).