A name is simply something to call an item. When you assign the numeric value 3 to a variable in the expression a = 3, a is a name.
Commands and functions have names, too. In the expression Log( 4 ), Log is the name of the logarithmic function.
Names have a few rules:
• Names must start with an alphabetic character or underscore and can continue with the following:
– alphabetic characters (a-z A-Z)
– numeric digits (0-9)
– whitespace characters (spaces, tabs, line endings, and page endings)
– mathematical symbols in Unicode (such as the Greek small alpha letter α)
– a few punctuation marks or special characters (apostrophes (‘), percent signs (%), periods (.), backslashes (\), and underscores (_))
• When comparing names, JMP ignores whitespace characters (such as spaces, tabs, and line endings). Upper case and lower case characters are not distinguished. For example, the names Forage and for age are equivalent, despite the differences in white space and case.
You can still have a name that is any other sequence of characters. If the name does not follow the rules above, it needs to be quoted and placed inside a special parser directive called Name(). For example, to use a global variable with the name taxable income(2011), you must use Name() every time the variable appears in a script:
Name( "taxable income( 2011 )" ) = 456000;
tax = .25;
Print( tax * Name( "taxable income( 2011 )") );
114000
Name() is harmless when it is not needed. For example, tax and Name("tax") are equivalent.
Note: Name() is not a function that gets called when the script is run; it is a syntax marker for expressing names that are ambiguous. To evaluate the name of a column in an expression, use Column().
For more information about how JMP interprets names, see Rules for Name Resolution.