JP> I asked this in OS2REXX but everyone there seems to have gone home...

Sorry for ignoring you John, I've been connected to OS2REXX since early
December and have received a grand total of 47 messages to date...but your
Q never made it to my system. I'm posting this answer in OS2REXX also so
you can see if it reaches you.

 JP> Is there a way to ignore case when comparing variables? 
 JP> (without parse upper..)

TRANSLATE will allow you to convert a string to uppercase for comparison
purposes without resorting to parse upper. For example...

/* using TRANSLATE() as built-in upper case converter */

parse linein str
if translate(str) = "QUIT" then say "the user wants to exit"

Bill


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