ANCHOR

     Causes a search to try to match the pattern following ANCHOR starting
     at the current character position.  If the match does not occur
     immediately, the search does not skip over characters looking for a
     match.

     ANCHOR is a keyword, not a built-in, and has no parameters.

     By default, if a search fails to find a match for a pattern, DECTPU
     moves the starting position for the search one character in the
     direction of the search and starts the search again.  If you use ANCHOR
     as the first element of a pattern definition, SEARCH does not move the
     starting position for the search.  This means the search will not match
     the pattern unless the pattern is encountered starting at the starting
     position of the search.

     ANCHOR is useful only as the first element of a complex pattern.  It is
     legal elsewhere in a pattern definition, but has no effect.

  Example

     The following assignment statement creates a pattern consisting of a,
     1, 2, and 3.  If you used pat1 as a parameter to the SEARCH built-in,
     the search would not move from character to character looking for the
     pattern.

     pat1 := ANCHOR + 'a' + '123';

  Related Topics

     SEARCH   SEARCH_QUIETLY   UNANCHOR