Macro Cannot Substitute String in Another Macro

 Last reviewed: February 28, 1995
Article ID: Q71286
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft NMAKE Utility for MS-DOS, versions 1.01, 1.1, 1.11, 1.12, 1.13, 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4
  • Microsoft NMAKE Utility for Windows NT, versions 1.4 and 1.5

SUMMARY

NMAKE supports macro substitution that allows you to replace the occurrences of one string in a macro with a substitute string. However, NMAKE does not support nesting macros; NMAKE does not evaluate a macro in another macro's replacement text.

MORE INFORMATION

Consider a makefile that contains the following lines: 

   SAMPLE=sit sat set
   NEW=m

   all:
      echo $(SAMPLE:s=b)
The echo command displays the contents of the SAMPLE macro after all occurrences of the letter "s" in the macro have been replaced by the letter "b" (the resulting output is "bit bat bet"). However, the following macro substitution does not function as intended: 

   echo $(SAMPLE:s=$(NEW))
This macro is designed to provide the output "mit mat met." However, in an NMAKE macro substitution, any characters between the equal sign and the right parenthesis are taken literally and NMAKE does not evaluate the embedded macro. In this case, the NMAKE produces the following output: "$(NEWit $(NEWat $(NEWet)".

Additional reference words: 1.10 1.20 1.30 1.40 1.50 kbinf
KBCategory: kbtool
KBSubcategory: NmakeIss

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Last reviewed: February 28, 1995
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